No. Two 3870s are roughly equal to a 4850, even when crossfire is working, much worse when it isn't. Two 3850s will always be slower.
Thanks just wondering cause you would naturally think 2 med/fast cards would be faster than 1 fast card... guess common sense dosent work in the computer world... lol think about how a 8800gt is waaay faster than a 9500gt... weird..
No, your theory is right, but the 4850 is MASSIVELY faster than the HD3850, the HD3850 is a slower than the 8800GS, but the HD4850 is faster than the 9800GTX+. As for 9500GT vs 8800GT, the numbering system for both geforce and radeon cards works like this: 1st digit - generation (9 is newer than 8, HD4 is newer than HD3) 2nd digit - model number (8 is high-end, 6 is midrange, 3&4 are low end) other characters - model specific (for geforces it goes up in this order: LE, GS, GT, GTS, GTX, GTX+. For radeons 70 it now goes 30,50,70. It used to go SE, Pro or XL, XT, XT-X or XT PE) Long story short, an older high-end card can still be better than a newer low-end card, especially with the geforce 8 & 9 series, as confusingly, they're all based on the same technology, got all that?
WOOOOW, cant say I got all that but I got what I needed.. thanks alot.. too confusing, but thats why I have afterdawn to tell me what the best is.. about two months ago I was going to spend 1000$ on a 6gb ram, 500 gb hd, quad core with a 9500 gs graphics card....(GS not GT)!! it sounded like a steal but after I learned that 6 gigs of ram is way too much, 750 gb hd and quad core are bassically standard, and 9500 gs SUUUCKS, I found out that I was going to be COMPLETELY RIPPED... http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8891737&type=product&id=1212192194712 Whew... thanks you afterdawn....