crossfire 3870 or 4850

Go for 1 HD 4850

Defiantly go for the 4850.
Well worth the few extra $.

Get an HD4850. The CF 3870 is nto bad at all, but not all games take advantage of it, and money wise, a 4850 is a great card.

I just got one Sapphire with a aftermarket cooler, and it rocks. For the price, it was a great buy. The only downside i can see in this card, is my Ms getting angry when i fire up COD4. And PES2008.

Oh well. Ill get her to Wow, but her laptop (X3100) IGP sucks big time.

Hmmm..........I am in the same dilemma myself and have been looking into this, I am thinking about getting a 3870X2 though.
Check the benchmarks in the graphics card charts on Tom's.
The 4850 is better with AA, but the 3870 CF is better at higher resolutions.

Actually, getting an additional 3870 is really more expensive than getting a 4850. To see the real benefit of 3870 CF, you need to get a monitor that supports at least 1680 x 1050 resolution.

So if you already have a good monitor, go with another 3870.
If you do not, and cost is an issue get a 4850.

EDIT: Grammar

I agree that an HD 4850 will hold well at 1680 x 1050. I am just pointing out that the 3870 CF configurations will start to beat the 4850 at that resolution and higher according to the new Tom's Hardware graphics charts, even with AA enabled.

Don't be so certain yet. It's not that easy a decision. People's recommendations make it look as if 4850 outperforms dual 3870 or 1 3870x2, but that's not quite true. Even with AA/AF and at high resolutions, 3870x2 still edges out 4850. 3870s scales badly to resolution and aa/af, while 4850 does very well, so those results are showing 3870x2/3870 cf at a large disadvantage.
http://www.hothardware.com/Article [...] op/?page=6
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It's 2 of ATI's more powerful gpus from last generation against 1 of ATI's less than most powerful gpu from this generation. The results aren't surprising.

Of course, with 2 3870s, you use up your cf option, while with single 4850, you still have room for future cf.

If bang for the buck matters most, or you care only for better performance at the moment, add a second 3870, costing $100 on newegg.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814102752
If you're forward looking, have a little more money at hand, and plan for possible future dual 4850 upgrade, get 4850. It cost $170, or $140 after mail in rebates.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814261027

If i recall correctly, all 3870 came with DDR4. It was part of the standard. I think it should be a typo. Look at the consumer reviews or the brand homepage.

Interesting, I didn't realize there are two versions. Although the x2 card tested in benchmark use ddr3, so ddr4 versions of 3870 in cf should perform better, not sure how much though.