2900xt and HD3870

[Justin]

hey guys. i'm planning on upgrading. i want to know what the difference between the 2900xt and hd3870 and which one is better for it's price. as of now i'm set on getting an hd3850.

 

[Motoxrdude]

The 2900XT is slower, and uses a lot more power.

 

[ThatGuy16]

yeah, the 3870 is better.

 

[daisymtc]

8800gt > Hd3850

 

[ThatGuy16]

For the price of the 3850, its one heck of a card.

 

[Ramodkk]

For the price of the 3850, its one heck of a card.

+1

Yeah, either one will be a BIG upgrade from the 7300GS. Especially in gaming, with the HD3850 and the 8800GT being the better deals, although the HD3870 and HD2900Pro are amazing deals as well.

 

[PC eye]

One runs on PCI-E 2.0 namely the new HD3870 cards while the HD2900s run on PCI-E 1.1. The HD2900s see a 512bit memory interface while one of the MSI models with the 800mhz core only sees a 256bit as seen at http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127315

 

[Geoff]

Performance wise the 2900XT and 3870 are pretty equal in most games. The majority of the time the 3870 performs better, but the 2900XT actually outperforms it in a few select tasks.

 

[hermeslyre]

Benchmark comparison, for those interested.

 

[PC eye]

That was similar to seeing the benchmarks on the 8800 model up against a Radeon X1950XTX in XP and see the Radeon go right past the newer NVidia driven model. You'll probably end up seeing an 8800 to 9800 comparicon soon enough.

 

[Ramodkk]

That benchmark just let me know how good the HD3850 is, 75% of the HD2900XT's performance at worst is not bad at all for the HD3850 and it eats a whole lot less power!

 

[PC eye]

Newer cards are being designed to draw less power in order to see the same or similar performance values. Drawing less when loaded also means seeing lower card temps.