AMD ATI Radeon HD 3800 Series Unleashed - Early Reviews Summary Nov 2007

TGDaily

http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/34861/135/1/0/

Of all of the cards, the value and overall performance title goes to the AMD Radeon HD 3870. It has enough horsepower for every game out and does it well. Purchasing any of the midrange cards will not leave you short in terms of performance but the AMD solutions and especially the HD 3870 offers the most for the price you pay. New competition means pricing wars and that leads to lower prices across the market. But we would be remised if we did not drop a teaser about more to come. It is a good time to be a gamer looking for a new graphics card and the future looks even brighter.

HardOCP

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTQxOSwxMCwsaGVudGh1c2lhc3Q

For the first time this year we can recommend AMD ATI graphics cards for gaming. We highly recommend the ATI Radeon HD 3850 for gaming under $200. With the average price of a GeForce 8800 GT currently at $293 and stock hard to find, the Radeon HD 3870 represents a healthy $70 savings while providing the best gaming experience at the $219 price point. Both the HD 3850 and HD 3870 represent the best gaming experience at their suggested retail prices. ATI has assured us that MSRP priced cards will be available and are classifying this as a “hard launch.”

Anandtech

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3151&p=10

Without a doubt, AMD is back in the graphics game. When the Radeon HD 2900 XT launched, we couldn't be more surprised at how poorly the product did. The lack of competition allowed NVIDIA to sit back and relax as the orders for more 8800-based product kept on flowing in. While the Radeon HD 3870 isn't faster than the GeForce 8800 GT, if AMD can hit its price point, it is a viable alternative if you're looking to save money.

The Radeon HD 3850 is a bit slower than its more expensive sibling and as such ends up being tremendous competition for current mid-range cards like the GeForce 8600 GTS or Radeon HD 2600 XT. We only compared it to the 8600 GTS in this review, but the 3850 similarly obsoletes the 2600 XT.

PC Perspectives

http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=482

The HD 3850 is the big winner here today as it stomps the GeForce 8600 GTS and HD 2600 XT cards in terms of your gaming experience while offering lower power consumption and nearly identical prices. The HD 3870 still can have a bright future with its price point sitting well below the available GeForce 8800 GT cards and its ability to perform better than its AMD HD 2900 XT cousin while maintaining much lower power requirements.

Hot Hardware

http://www.hothardware.com/articles/ATI_Radeon_HD_3870_and_3850_55nm_RV670/?page=12

There is a lot to like about the new Radeon HD 38x0 series. Both the Radeon HD 3870 and 3850 performed well throughout our entire battery of tests, in terms of framerates and image quality. Video playback performance was also good and thanks to design tweaks, PowerPlay, and a new 55nm manufacturing process power consumption, temperatures, and noise levels are way down in comparison to the previous generation. The RV670 GPU also offers support for DirectX 10.1, which is a first in the industry.

FiringSquad

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/amd_rv670_performance_preview/page17.asp

The debut of the Radeon HD 3870 and 3850 is quite significant for AMD. They've finally delivered competitive parts to go head-to-head with NVIDIA at the performance mainstream segment. It's been quite awhile since we've been able to say this. Both GPUs appear to offer good performance for their segment, while also providing technology leadership with support for DirectX 10.1 and 4-Way CrossFire with CrossFire X. We probably won't see the first DX10.1 titles until this time next year at the very earliest, but CrossFire X has potential to be very interesting for those of you who prefer to upgrade incrementally. You can buy one RV670 card now, and up to three more boards as your performance needs (and budget) allows. NVIDIA has their own 3-Way SLI solution that will be launching shortly, but this will only be available for their high-end cards, the GeForce 8800 GTX and Ultra. AMD's providing CrossFire X-compliant cards at much lower price points.

PC Perspective

http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=482

The AMD Radeon HD 3800 series of graphics cards is ushering in new life for AMD GPUs that is desperately needed. The HD 2000 series was more or less a flop in terms of enthusiast success though no one wants to admit that in Sunnyvale. The RV670 core revision is turning it around though by lowering power consumption dramatically and increasing AMD's competitiveness in gaming performance.

The HD 3850 is the big winner here today as it stomps the GeForce 8600 GTS and HD 2600 XT cards in terms of your gaming experience while offering lower power consumption and nearly identical prices. The HD 3870 still can have a bright future with its price point sitting well below the available GeForce 8800 GT cards and its ability to perform better than its AMD HD 2900 XT cousin while maintaining much lower power requirements.

Legit Reviews

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/591/1/

The move to 55nm and the overall features of the RV670 core were obviously much needed for ATI and have boosted graphics card performance across the board. At this price point ATI has come up with a wonderful solution for the mainstream market and NVIDIA has nothing to compete at this price point. Performance per watt was impressive as the Radeon HD 3850 had least amount of power consumption against all the cards it was tested against.