News, info, and opinion by Mac users, for Mac users.

June 17, 2008

hardware

Sold on the Radeon 3870

Posted Jun. 17, ’08, 7:01 AM PT by Derik DeLong
Category | Hardware

Radeon 3870 When I heard about the $219 Radeon 3870 video card, I vowed to wait for independent testing to see how is stacked up against the Nvidia 8800 that was recently made available (that I was on the verge of buying). The good news is that Barefeats has done their analysis.

Rob’s analysis is broken up into several parts: PC only games (running in Boot Camp, which includes using two of the cards in “Crossfire” mode), Mac games, and finally Core image performance. The Nvidia card has comparable performance to the Radeon card, perhaps with a slight edge. On the other hand, Core Image is a completely different story.

When it comes to Core Image driven tasks, the Radeon card is far superior. It completely blows the Nvidia out of the water. As a result, Barefeats recommends the 3870 as the best overall card. Based on the data presented, I’d have to agree. In fact, I’m going to purchase one later this month when it’s released.


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