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AMD Radeon HD 3800: ATI Strikes Back

11:51 AM - November 15, 2007 by Fedy Abi-Chahla

1. Introduction
2. Direct3D 10.1: Incompatible?
3. Direct3D 10.1: What's New
4. Direct3D 10.1: Quality, Practically
5. Radeon HD 3000: A New Architecture?
6. Triple And Quad CrossFire, Specifications
7. Radeon HD 3850 And 3870
8. The Test
9. Benchmarks
10. Supreme Commander

Things aren't looking too good for AMD. Up until now, its graphic card offerings were only worthwhile for two cards: the Radeon HD 2900 XT Compare Prices on Radeon HD 2900 XT, performing better than the GeForce 8800 GTS 640 MB at a similar price (but at a noise and power consumption level much higher at peak) and maybe the Radeon HD 2600 XT, but only for Home Theater amateurs. Here may have been a big gap between those two cards, but their respective price points were almost coherent. The manufacturer was ready to fill it up with its Radeon HD 3850 and 3870, which only launches today. At least, this was true until, all of a sudden, its best friend knocked the air out of it by launching a card that surprised everyone, NVIDIA included: the GeForce 8800 GT 512 MB with a performance-price ratio that's actually exceptional.

Call of Duty 4

The situation thus becomes particularly ironic today because, AMD's very high end is thus beaten by a card sold at $230 . It's a situation that has a tendency to remind us of a time we thought was forgotten, that of the first Radeon. Yet, the rushed launch of GeForce 8800 GT is characterized by a more than problematic availability of those cards, and it's going to remain tight until January. Henceforth, what is AMD able to offer in this price range for the end of the year?

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