Product Reviews

We reviewed Sapphire's Radeon HD 3850 in What's New, Shopper 241. This is its bigger brother, the 3870.

On paper, the 3870's specifications are considerably better than the pricier Gigabyte GeForce 8800GT's. The 775MHz core speed, for example, is a lot faster than the 8800GT's 600MHz, while the 512MB of GDDR4 memory runs at a blistering 2.25GHz compared to 1.8GHz. The graphics processor itself is identical to the Radeon HD 3850's with 320 stream processors and 666 million transistors, but it runs faster.

In isolation, numbers like this are meaningless. What really counts

Like the HD 3850, the HD 3870 supports CrossFireX. This means you can install up to four of the cards on a suitable motherboard, although this is an expensive move, and it won't give you four times the performance. The HD 3870's only real disadvantage is the large cooler design, which takes up two slots inside your PC, whereas the 3850 and 8800GT take up just one slot. If space is tight (in a small form-factor case, for example), then the HD 3870 is unlikely to fit where an 8800GT might.

Although the Gigabyte 8800GT still costs over £160, you can buy an identical card from other manufacturers for the same price as an HD 3870. Prices are still tumbling, though, so check internet retailers for the latest prices to get the best bargain.