Verdict: Noticeably faster than the HD 3850, but slower than the 8800 GT.

So far, ATI has launched two HD 3000-series GPUs, the HD 3850 and the HD 3870. However, while ATI has felt it necessary to give these GPUs a new moniker, they're closely based on the HD 2000-series architecture that debuted in the HD 2900 XT.

For example, the HD 3850 and HD 3870 both have 320 stream processors and a 256-bit-wide memory controller. However, the HD 3000-series introduces support for Shader Model 4.1 and DirectX 10.1, which are likely to become more important over the coming years. Both cards also support PCI-E 2.0, which provides more power and bandwidth via the motherboard. Unlike the HD 3850, which is fitted with a single-slot cooler, the HD 3870 has a hefty dual-slot cooler, but it's still relatively quiet.

While the GPU on the HD 3850 is clocked at 669MHz, the HD 3870 runs at 775MHz. Both cards also have different RAM configurations; the HD 3850 has 256MB of GDDR3 clocked at 828MHz (1.66GHz effective), while the HD 3870 has 512MB of GDDR4 clocked at 1.125GHz (2.25GHz effective).

As the HD 3870 has far greater memory bandwidth than the HD 3850, it's typically capable of playing games smoothly at one resolution setting higher. For example, the HD 3850 could only manage to play Call of Duty 4 at 1,024 x 768, while the HD 3870 managed to play it at 1,280 x 1,024 with 2x AA. However, Crysis at high detail proved to be too much for the HD 3870, despite its faster GPU and RAM.

While the HD 3850 is undoubtedly great value for money, the more expensive HD 3870 struggles to impress. It's measurably faster than the HD 3850, but it's priced midway between the 256MB and 512MB versions of the 8800 GT, both of which are significantly faster, especially when playing a game with anti-aliasing enabled - a must-have when gaming at low resolutions.

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