Sapphire HD3870

Throw more RAM, speed and a whole bunch of software at an older Radeon and this is the result

This card is the XT version of the RV670 core and like its HD3850 brethren; the HD3870 features a 55nm manufacturing process, 320 stream processing units, 512MB of GDDR4 memory, a dual slot cooler and a single 6-pin PCIe power connector.

Technically very similar to the HD3850, the HD3870 separates itself by having an additional 256MB of GDDR4 and higher clock speeds of 775MHz core and 1125MHz memory (2250MHz effective) opposed to the RV670 Pro speeds of 669MHz core and 829MHz memory (1658MHz effective).

These subtle changes funnily enough also bring only a subtle increase in performance, but one that is none the less noticeable. The card scored 10,698 in 3DMark06, while in Crysis testing the card pulled in 17.55, 8.72 and 14.39 for the maximum, minimum and average FPS respectively at a resolution of 1280x1024, with no AA, no AF and all settings on ‘very high’ with DX10 visuals.

Like its little brother, the HD3870 from Sapphire provides a killer bundle of software with 3DMark06, PowerDVD 7, DVD Suite 5, a Black Box license from Valve and the necessary program, Steam, included on the driver disc with the Catalyst 7.11 drivers. As for the hardware peripherals, the normal array is there with TV-out breakout cables, DVI to D-Sub converters and one of the two necessary CrossFire bridges should you choose to go down that path – the second would be obtained from the purchase of the second card.

Sitting in a rather nasty price zone, this card is forced to compete with some of the cheaper 8800GT cards – that is if you can get stock of the 8800GT. With some retailers pushing the price of this card north of $400, this once again adds to the confusion as to what to buy in this price bracket. Should a buyer wait it out and purchase an 8800GT, which is significantly faster, or look for an alternative in the form of the HD3870? This is the question many enthusiasts are facing.

In the end, it appears that the $325 to $450 price bracket is going to be dominated by availability rather than the actual product choice and performance.