Hi guys i really need some help in chooseing i can get all the graphics cards mentioned in the title for around the same amount of money, my screen is 1440x900 and the games i would play would be crysis, call of duty 4 and frontlines (when it comes out).

Also it would be much appreciated if when you give me an answer it could be backed up with a resoning of why it is the best and also weather of not my Heyna 500w psu would run it.

thanks.

8800 GT or 3870. Stay away from the 8800 GTS.

The Fatal1ty GTS matches the GTX stock I believe, however it doesn't have THAT much of an OC headroom left (650/1000 vs 500/800 stock) and I wouldn't recommend it over the stock 8800GT or the stock HD3870, that have 1.) more memory for newer titles and 2.) a bigger OC headroom. If anything I'd try to get a GTS 512 for the better cooler.

Don't be so sure
http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cI [...] ageID=3951

it does have some headroom left but it has inly 320MB of memory and will fall on it's face in higher resolutions.. but it's all about how much everything costs.. especially since almost nothing is going for it's base MSRP today

I have the 3870 and i play COD4. I am happy with my choice. I don't get the FPS i should because my old Pentium 4 3.0 sucks. But i still get 40-70 fps constant. probably averaging around 55. I am sure the 8800GT is a great card, but i cant comment on it. Never had one, but the 3870 would be a great choice.

I would go with a 8800gt. Asus is bring out their 8800gt 1gb soon. Also allows you to oc the shaders by 10% and comes with a better heatsink. http://www.asus.com/news_show.aspx?id=9192

What kind of prices are you seeing? A $20-40 price difference between them can make a difference. If the 3870 is cheaper (should be) than I'd recommend it. But the 8800gt 512mb GPU is good too. Generally does a bit better than the 3870, but if it's more than $30 more, I'd still get the 3870. If you have a X-fire mobo, than I might just stick with AMD, since you might want to SLI later, especially if you intend to upgrade your monitor to a high resolution one. Just a couple of thoughts to consider. Right now I'd go with the 8800gt (if price is real close), then the 3870, and then probably the 512mb 8800gts (assuming your talking about the g92 variant?).

Edit: Forgot to mention that the 3870 will be a little cooler than the 8800gt, so if you have a smaller (less efficient) case, than you might pick the 3870 over the 8800gt. If you have a roomy and/or cool case, either one will do.

Depending on the rest of your hardware I'd say 8800GT or the 3870 are your best bets. The 8800GTS is still a good card but you can get better performance for less, and in a smaller more efficient card now.

The 3870 and 8800GT both overclock very well, but I've heard of quite a few 8800GT's having some issues.

I'd actually go for the 3870 since it's a little cheaper and performs pretty darn close to the 8800GT, plus ATI has shown that it can really boost performance with updates to it's drivers. Not that it really matters but the 3870 is DX10.1 capable.

Well if you can get the 8800GTS cheap (~$225), it'll be a good deal. Otherwise the 8800GT is the best bang for the buck, even more so than the 3870. The 3870's price/performance matches the 8800GT, but the 8800GT is faster, so obviously you'd want to get the faster one. The only reason I see fit to get the 3870 is for the dual-slot cooling.

if your not owrried aobut the sound don get fatal1ty! for the price your better off with somthing else...however if sound is an issue for you than get fatal1ty wonderfuly silent!

Hi thanks for all the responses, the price does not matter as i get all 3 for around the same price, about 310 usd (i know what a rip off but thats the cheepist in aus) the size also doesnt matter as i am currently using a server case. Just a thought would a graphics card from the us work in australia, any way i am currently leaning towards the 3870 as i know i can get a good brand (sappire) quite cheep.

thanks

As far as I know, any PCI-e slot will run any PCI-e GPU, as long as you have enough PSU power to power up the higher end GPU's. This should be the case any where in the world. The only difference that I'd see is that the PSU would have to be switched between 110v AC to 220v AC. The DC power doesn't change after the conversion from the wall (AC).

3870. why? because if all of a sudden the producers of PC games decided to suddenly switch to dx10.1 than you're not screwed.

=]

Evan if they did all switch to DX10.1 the 8800GT would still be better, as would the 8800GTS SSC edition and the 8800GTS 512mb. DX10.1 is a very minor improvement, but yes...I do want the 3870, but it is mostly for the HDMI support and AMD needs the money.

Best,

3Ball

If it has fatal1ty in the name, it means "Don't buy this, only a tool would put his name on this overpriced poop."

The NEW 8800GT is better than both of them and is under $250 USD online right now...and will be even less in January.

The NEW 8800GT is on par with a 8800GTX and uses alot less power.

If you worrie about your PSU then you should be using a PC Power & Cooling PSU...they cost more but nothing comes close to them.
A PC P&C Turbo 510 puts out more constant power and at a much higher 50C operating temp than a OCZ 700.

OT...nobody needs crappy Vista to run DX-10 GFX anymore so if you have it DUMP it and install faster XP-XP Pro and Google the DX-10 fix.
Vista is and always has been crap and slower than XP * even when "tweeked".
Microsoft even said it will not support Vista after the end of 2008...Google it.

I ordered a pair of HIS HD3870 cards from amazon.com and for the price they offered the best performance for the price. When I ordered them it said they were still on pre-order and still does although they shipped several days later and I got them on Dec 5th. They came in at $235 each, and I didn't have to pay shipping or tax so the total came in at $470. Now they also come with a $20 dollar mail in rebate although you can only get the rebate for one card. So take $10 dollars off the MRSP. From benchmarks so far they easily out perform 8800gt SLI and really don't slow down when you up the resolution and start turning on AF and AA.

I put in my pre-order because of the fact I wouldn't have to pay California's 8.25% sales tax, and the fact I figured at the price to performance ratio they would be in high demand. The 8800gt and gts G92 are either all sold out or overpriced.

So with no tax, free shipping, and being sold at basically below MSRP with the rebate I am happy.

8800 GT, no way around it (except for the G92-400)

also would my cpu bottle neck a 8800gt or 3870 it is a pentium 4 clocked a 4ghz rated at over 6ghz.