Could someone tell me why (other then fanboism) you would want to buy an 8800gt for 250.00+ when you could have an radeon 3850 for 190.00, or a 3870 for just a bit more. The radeon card has over twice as many stream processors (and those are what is impotant, right?) and I am assuming comparable clock speeds. So why would I want to spend so much more for what seems to me to be an inferior card?

Well to answer your question... Hardware specs can look good on paper however true performance can be disappointing or in some cases even a surprise. The 8800 gt is a great card for the price as it almost matchs up to a card twice its price. The 8800 gt is anything but the inferior card.

However the 3850 and the 3870 are still very good cards and if money is a tight thing with you then of course these cards are more advised. But this is tomshardware where the geeks roam free and no doubt want the best we can afford

Stream processors from AMD aren't the same as stream processors from Nvidia. They don't work the same way, nor do they work at the same speeds. Just as you can't say X CPU is faster then Y because it runs at a faster frequency, you can't say the 3850 is faster then the 8800GT because it has more stream processors.

I do agree with Nuclearshadow. For their respective price points, the 3850 and 8800GT are good cards.

Ok, thanks. Next question, I am running an 8800gts 312mb. Would I see an major differences in performance upgrading to an 8800gt? An radeon 3850 or 3870?

www.google.com

why not just look at some reviews? then you can ask an intelligent question instead of the usual repetative **** that you obviously think no one has asked before.

Improvement yes, major? not really. That's a relative term but I'd say no, don't bother spending another bundle. Wait for the next generation of cards.

Ya, hi. Your an ass. Maybe I would like to get the opinions of real people instead of what are more then likely biased review sites. In the past year I have built two new pc. And have posted less then a half dozen times on this site or any other for that matter, to find answers to questions. Instead I choose to use www.goggle.com, so thanks for the advice but I already know about it. I really do.

BOB SAMPLES wrote:
"Maybe I would like to get the opinions of real people instead of what are more then likely biased review sites."

That's fine. But a lot of time, that's exactly what they are - opinions. Most us do not have access to a lot of hardware to do a lot of rigorous testing. So we have no recourse other than the "more than likely biased review sites". The solution to that, of course, is to look at several sites and compare what they are telling you.

And then there's the whole issue of bias. We all tend to think that someone who disagrees with you about something you thought you knew, is "biased". And that someone who agrees with you is a wise, wise man.

and:
"... I have built two new pc."

Irrelevant. In the past year, I have built 2 new systems, 3 old "junkbox" systems for give-a-way, preparing to upgrade to a Q6600 in the newest box, and finally discarded a P233MMX system that I had OC'd to 333 MHz. And there are people here who would lightheartedly (I hope) call me "Slacker" because that's ALL I did.

OTOH, over the past year, I have noticed an increasing level of impatience with people who keep asking "asked and answered" questions or questions that can be answered with a little research.

and:
"And have posted less then a half dozen times on this site ... "

"More informations" says that this is your 41st post.

Google IS great, especially for questions that can be precisely defined, such as "Uninstall MacAfee", "Windows error code ASDFG000", or "Antec 900 case". It's not so good for "Is this working right?"