Is the HD3870 worth the premium over the HD3850?

You are basically paying for a dual slot cooling solution. From initial reports, you can OC the 3850 to perform like the 3870.

On a note that completely contradicts my previous statements, I would go for the 3870.

Thanks for confusing me  

If you can OC the 3850 to 3870 speeds, why then the 3870?

and the 3870 is better, has more RAM, etc.

But is it really worth the premium? I'm planning to upgrade to a next-gen card next year.

IMO it is worth every penny. I will never buy a single slot card again after owning a dual slot card.

Best,

3Ball

you can also OC the 3870 (not as much as the 3850 thought). You're paying for the vram, the dual slot cooler and performance. See some benchmarks to see the difference.

(the 3850 has better price/performance ratio)

^Agreed

It's worth the premium at $219. It's not worth the prices (around $264) that are being asked today when it's in stock. I don't know when R700 is arriving, but if it follows the benefits of the X3850 and X3870 over the X2900 cards, then it should be great (who ever thought that ATI would be keeping AMD afloat this holiday season?).

That's why I'll get an X3850 after all. I don't mind performance close to X2900XT with half the power and almost no noise and heat. 55nm really helped ATI, whereas AMD should have waited for 45nm for a quad core.

I'm particularly interested in an X2 6400+ in a 780G chipset board for hybrid Crossfire by February. That should improve X3850 performance by at least 5%.

Single slot cards aren't that bad if you have enough cooling. Double slot cards do a better job of getting the heat outside the case, but a side fan works too. I like buying cases that either have a side fan or a heatpipe above the CPU fan.

Wait for the HD 3850 512mb extreme I just read about coming in about a month

@VChuck: Err...a isn't the vram the only thing seperating the 3850 and the 3870, besides different clocks and cooling solutions?

also forgetting some 3870's come in gddr4 form....

PowerColor is releasing a 3850 Extreme with slightly higher clocks over the standard 3850 and 512MB of memory.

The extreme has not been officially released yet and the MSRP is $20 more than the standard 3850

http://www.guru3d.com/article/Videocards/472/

Take a look at this review from both the 3850 an 3870 and then dicide if it's worth the extra.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/Videocards/472/

I think the 3850 offers better price/preformance!

Look at the resolution you play at and then dicide.

Yup

correct also heh,
I'm thinking I like the HD3850 512mg extreme for the money also.
except I just bought a 2900 Pro about mo. ago.

PowerColors 3850 Extreme 512MB is faster than ATI 3870 at stock speed yet cheaper than ATI 3870. Best yet faster than 8800GT on some cases.
See here:
http://itembargain.com/forumn/index.php?topic=38.0

Get the 777 mhz. 3870 .... by any company ... way beyond 3850 on all tests here and other sites I've seen .