Yup, but bear this in mind. In the US HD3870s are $250 and 8800GTs are $250. In the UK HD3870s are £140 and 8800GTs are £175.
but why do you still prefer HD3870 over 8800GT even if they are the same price, 880GT is bit faster. This is why i don't get it.
the HD3870 produces a better picture than the 8800GT. so if you're gonna spend the money on a card, what would you rather have; better picture quality, or better speed?
Well exactly. Not all of us are frame rate munchers. I figure that if there's anything the 3870 can't run smoothly, it's not going to be that smooth with an 8800GT either.
yeah i gotta agree with you two, i like good graphics games which = good image quility. I'll go for the HD3870 then.
hi guys im looking at upgrading my pc to a gigabyte X48T-DQ6 but i need to a few things can someone help:- 1. I intend to buy x2 3870 x2 quad setp and a q9450 cpu if i buy this motherboard what can i expect to upgrade the gx cards to in say 1yr from whats after the 3870 gx2 and will this mobo take the new card. 2. Also what about gigabyte x38 any problems with this board 3.A x3 8800gtx tri sli is it better than x1 3870 x2 crossfire thanks
Well that's certainly one of the higher-budget builds I've seen. In a year, I've no idea what will be the graphics king of the hill, the market changes too quickly, although so far nothing groundbreaking in the performance department has come along for a long time. Three 8800GTXs will beat one or two 3870s in the performance stakes, but consider the power usage of such a system. Three 8800GTXs at full load with a quad core use about 800W, a bit over, so around 950W at the mains - as much as an electric toaster (2-slot) or microwave at full power. That's four times as much as my gaming PC uses, and it'll be almost as fast in some of today's games. A pair of HD3870X2s will probably put you in the 700-750W power range, which is still absurd, and personally I think that'd be an unreliable system. Triple SLi's best if you absolutely have to have the fastest frame rate around, but for what it's worth, I'd save your money and get a pair of 9600GTs for now, more money to spend later. A PC with two of those will only use around 400-450W at full load and push similar frame rates - the 9600s work much better in SLI than 8800s, so you may even do better in some games. You could save up to £650 / $800 by doing this on the cards alone, then consider you don't need to get an outrageous 1100W PSU any more, a good 620W unit will be fine.
