AMD Radeon HD 3800: The Empire Strikes Back

Anoobis

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Feb 4, 2006
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Pricewise they're not bad buys....if they come out at the prices indicated in the article.

The real winner is the HD 3850, now they just need to get it on the shelf.
 

hergieburbur

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Dec 19, 2005
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Wow, the article really could have done without the 5-6 pages worth of hyperbole and AMD hating, and just stuck to doing an actual review of the facts, rather than opinions.
 

lasereth

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Mar 22, 2007
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I hate to be mean, but: WOWWWW WAY TOO MANY COMMAS!! Whoever wrote this article needs to take a super chill pill with the commas. They're used incorrectly and make the article hard to read.

This article is very informative, however. Great work.
 

ThePooBurner

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May 31, 2004
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I agree 100%. I read this article on the UK site this morning before it was posted here and each page ticked me off more. There is so much bias and hate it's ridiculous. Every time there is something that ATI did well (and they are still ATI, not AMD. Being owned doesn't change their name) you mention it twice as both a good thing and a bad thing. It's like saying "I like that you have brown hair, but... your hair is brown so i hope you rot in hell." Not to mention the commas, the "however"s, and the "clearly"s. The graphs are also very sub-par compared to usual. Having everything mashed into one diagram is awful and makes it hard to see what is what. 2 charts per benchmark is standard and it should be adhered to.

Aside from that i disagree that this isn't a big step forward. It's no a HUGE jump like we've seen a few times of late, but more of a 9700-9800 kind of step. Not every generation can add 100FPS to a game. But lets look at it this way. The MID-RANGE card is out preforming the current top model. Ergo when they release a top model based on the new process we should see something that does much better than the 2 new cards. Plus the drivers are beta. Let them get public quality drivers and we could see further increases.

You complain as though a midrange card is supposed to out-do everything in the previous generation. That's bunk. What i see is a card that is within range of the direct competition, of an equal generation, for a much lower price. ATi didn't mess up at all. Nvidia has a new gen, so do they. Both are mid range and are showing what the new midrange looks like.

The reduction in heat, noise, and power draw are great improvements. The increase in clock is good. Supporting the new DX10.1 standard is good. PCIe2.0 is good. There are a lot of great things about this card, but you are so blinded by your anger that they are taking they price/performance(bang for buck) from Nvidia that you can't see them.

Next time give us an article without all the bias, hate, negativepositivenegative comments that keep anything the card does right from coming off in a good light and get back to a normal review process.
 

bfellow

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Dec 22, 2006
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Ummm you're wrong the MID_RANGE card (HD3850) is not outperforming the 2900XT while the Upper Range Card (HD3870) most of the time is doing that.
 

idrobnjak

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Nov 15, 2007
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Dear all,

As much as 3870 suckies compared to 8800GT, it sold out quickly on a website of an unnamed online vendor (rhymes with legg) – 2 different brands in under 25 minutes. I didn’t get to take the first screenshot, but it started off with quantities of 25 and 20 (Diamond and HIS respectively). Minute later (13:20h EST):

screen1.JPG


minute later (13:21h EST):

screen2.JPG


2 minutes later (13:23h EST):

screen3.JPG


minute later (13:24h EST):

screen4.JPG


minute later (13:25h EST):

screen5.JPG


then the unnamed vendor caught onto interest in this product and limited the quantities to 2 max:

screen6.JPG


then I got to skimming through the tom’s article on this card and before I was finished I checked the cart one more time and the 3870s were gone:

screen7.JPG


Interesting to note that not a single 3850 sold in the mean time… I wonder which is generating more excitement in the community – of course the one they plan to ship less of.

I personally have a preorder for an EVGA 8800GT from frys ($229). I placed the order on Oct 29, and it still hasn’t shipped as they haven’t heard from EVGA why their shipment didn’t come in on Nov 5th. I don’t want to let the order go because of a good price that I locked in (ZZF has an EVGA in stock for $399!!!! Talk about price gouging). After calling them now, they say they expect a shipment to come in to their warehouse on Nov 18 – this Sunday. They will ship out on Monday and I should hopefully have it by Tuesday.
All I know is that I am sick of waiting, but the situation doesn’t look like it will be a whole lot better with ATI – sending such small quantities for sale. So advice – if you are interested in one pick it up as soon as you can so that you don’t end up like me with the 8800GT…
 

aadamszc

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Sep 8, 2007
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The article was good in my opinion. Any article is not going to be perfect and I would like you to show me an article reviewing a product without any bias.

Good job, toms.
 

KekaiGenkai

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Oct 3, 2007
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Where are all the $230 8800GT's everyone is talking about? I haven't seen anywhere this is being sold for less than $280. Maybe I'm not looking in the right places, but with newegg listing the new 3870's at $220 and the 8800GT's still at $280 or more it looks like ATI's got at least some advantage over nVidia.

And, just as a few others have noticed, there seems to be an inordinate amount of ATI hate spewing from this article. Delete the first six pages and it seems to be okay.
 

aadamszc

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Sep 8, 2007
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I suppose I didn't really see too much anti-ATI because I didn't read the first six pages. It looked boring, something or another about Direct3d.
 

niz

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Feb 5, 2003
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I'm amazed by the blindness and dogged brand-loyalty of ATI fanbois even in the face of undeniable performance figures.
The 8800 GT pounds the 3870 into the ground yet there are still people here saying they're going to rush out and buy a 3870.
Common sense has definately left the building.
 

tipoo

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May 4, 2006
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you cant deny, though that the 3850 obliterates any other midrange option right now. and shouldnt this be called "return of the Jedi" (not because nVidia is evil, just that they were on top...)
 

niz

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Feb 5, 2003
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I'd call an 8800GT midrange at the pricing it has. Its only $40 more than the 3850. Sounds like the extra is well worth it to me.