Posted 01/17/2008 at 12:50:10am

You should be able to pick up one of these cards for ~$160. At that price, it's maybe a little unfair to compare the HD3850 with the 512MB version of the 8800GT. For right around ~$199, there are several factory overclocked versions of the HD3850 available and those come equiped with 512MB of GDDR3. Other online reviews have suggested that some of the factory overclocked HD3850's are faster than stock clocked HD3870's. I don't disagree that the 256MB version of this card isn't the best choice at resolutions greater than 1280 x 1024, but for a budget minded buyer, when you make the comparison to NVidia's offerings at this price range ($160) this card is an amazing value IMHO. Within this price range, you're looking at an 8600GTS or an HD3850, at least for the moment. For those that fall into the category of "casual gamer" or those looking to upgrade from an older mainstream card (think 7 series or older x6xx NVidia or X8**/X7** series ATI cards) this isn't a bad choice.