Hehe, I laughed when I saw this thread. I don't think the author of the other thread wanted to show that the 8800GT was better, but was simply wondering why.
On that note, all of what trooper is saying is BS. Ok, not all of it.
-You act like DX 10.1 is the coming of Christ. Games will be made for both DX10 and 10.1. At most, the people who bought the 8800GT will lose out on a lightning effect or 2.
-Sure, it runs cooler. That is all fine and dandy, but it runs cooler because it performs less according to a plethora of benchmarks.
-3870 only uses less power when idle. If I wanted to save on my electric bill, I wouldn't leave my computer on.
-I just placed my order for a 8800GT yesterday. It was 248.99. Whereas the 3870 was 239.99. Neither of them were in stock and when I talked to customer support, they said that it was likely that the 8800GT would get in sooner.
It may seem like I am a nVidia fanboy, but if the 8800GT would have been higher priced, I would have gone ATI.
I just don't see why people claim that a videocard is better because of things that don't have much weight in choosing one. I don't ever remember thinking that I am getting a videocard because it is cheaper, runs cooler, and quieter. But -- Oh, wait! It has less performance.
The truth is that we will just have to wait to see which camp wins and nothing we say will really make too much of a difference.