Conclusion
Well there you have it, another disappointing release from AMD/ATI. Although they have managed to undercut Nvidia by reducing the cost of the Radeon HD 3870 by around 12% when compared to the GeForce 8800 GT, we found that on average it was 22% slower. So then in terms of value the GeForce 8800 GT looks to preserve its position as the best value high-end graphics card ever released. The GeForce 8800 GT has proven to be a strong performer, as has the entire GeForce 8800 series ever since it was first introduced over a year ago now.
While we did have high hopes for the Radeon HD 3870, we actually really knew what to expect and although the results did disappoint, they certainly did not shock us. From a technical point of view, not much has changed here. Sure the die has been shrunk down to 55nm from 80nm, and the core and memory frequencies have been boosted, but with only a 256-bit memory bus, we never expected the Radeon HD 3870 to outperform the 2900XT and it certainly did not. Granted the Radeon HD 3870 was a little bit faster in some games, it was also a little bit slower in others and for the most part there was little to no performance difference between the 2900XT and the new 3870 graphics card.
In terms of performance the Radeon HD 3870 could easily just pass as a Radeon HD 2900XT. While the power consumption levels have been reduced, not much else has changed. So in essence what we are looking at is a $240 US version of the Radeon HD 2900XT. Normally such a thing would put us over the moon, as the Radeon HD 2900XT costs around $400 US typically. However, due to the recent arrival of the GeForce 8800 GT, even the Radeon HD 2900XT is not all that appealing at $240 US. After all the hype about the new Radeon HD 3870, we were hoping for more, as I said, but ultimately expected very little, which is what we got.
Perhaps the biggest cause for excitement was in the name, as Radeon HD 3870 suggests that this is in fact a next generation product. Rather AMD/ATI is just trying to stretch the R600 architecture a little bit further. So making the Radeon HD 3870 sound like something it clearly is not, will most likely upset a number of readers. Nvidia actually did the opposite by making the GeForce 8800 GT sound like another run of the mill GeForce 8800 series graphics card that was probably going to be a little bit slower than the GTS version. Of course the 8800 GT was much more, offering games a performance vs. price ratio that was unimaginable only a few months ago.
Anyway, the battle between the Radeon HD 3870 and the GeForce 8800 GT was over almost before it began really, with the 8800 GT dominating right from the word go. In most games the 8800 GT is a fair bit faster and at this stage it is our understanding that users will only pay slightly less for the Radeon HD 3870. Those that have already invested in a GeForce 8800 GT graphics card will be relieved to know that they have not wasted their money, as the Radeon HD 3870 does nothing to hurt that investment. While the performance offered by the Radeon HD 3870 is quite impressive given the price tag, we think it is about time for AMD/ATI to move on and develop a real next-gen product!
.
you're not exactly robinson crusoe fella 
