ATI HD3850 and HD3870 further drop in price

@ 2008/03/12
As of today, HD3850 256MB is available for as little as €109. This is more than enough for the HD3850 to hold on to its best buy crown in the segment as you simply can't get anything close to it at such an appealing price tag.

The HD3870 has dropped under €150. Sapphire's single slot card is available in Germany for €146, here. Reference cards are available for just over €150.

Comment from jmke @ 2008/03/12
768Mb on 8800GS does pay off a small bit at very high resolution, but then the cost of the card is too close to 8800 GT 512Mb
Comment from Kougar @ 2008/03/12
I have only seen 8800GS cards with "384MB 192-bit GDDR3" parts. More memory would be mostly ineffective due to the mem bus width, IMO. Mem bandwidth will hurt at higher resolutions, but more than plenty of memory/bandwidth for below 1600x1200 settings.

I hear the 8800GS cards overclock very well... Suspect the HD 3850 will scale much better for higher resolutions, but at $100-150 most gamers do not use >1600x1200 I would suspect.

Edit: Just saw that review... very interesting, card scales as expected only in 3DMark... looks like the cheaper 8800GS is an easy choice between the two.
Comment from jmke @ 2008/03/12
8800GS with how much memory? Don't know how it stacks up to the 3850, do know that the 9600 GT outperforms the 384Mb 8800GS by quite a nice margin, even the 8800 GS 768 doesn't come on par. The HD3850 is noticeably slower than 9600GT, so the HD3850 and 8800GS might end up on par in most games.

Google tells me you're not the only one wondering which one is better

Based on the chart, XFX 8800GS 384MB XXX leads about 6.53%. If we omit those lower than 30 FPS score, then the gap will enlarge to 12%.

88000GS XFX XXX OC version vs stock HD3850
http://en.expreview.com/2008/01/25/r...r3-xxx/?page=6
Comment from Kougar @ 2008/03/12
ASUS no longer has a $100 8800GS on Newegg... but eVGA & XFX both still have 8800GS cards there. $120 shipped AMIR for an XFX.
Comment from jmke @ 2008/03/12
8800GS is available in large quantities?
Comment from Kougar @ 2008/03/12
8800GS verses HD 3850, who wins?

3850 is still $150 here, 8800GS is $100-120
Comment from jmke @ 2008/03/12
HD3850 @ €100 is best deal in years for "low budget" gaming system!