Radeon 3850 OEM video card "IN STOCK" at mwave

[lyssword]

3850 is the new 1950pro, which was really good

 

[jodhas]

I've definitely made up my mind to go with 3850.

evga 8800GT costs me a buck under $340 after tax and shipping... (Link) .... =( Video cards are WAAAY overpriced....

Again, 3850 does a fantastic job of most of the games out there and it can be had for $179... I've never owned a Radeon but I think it is finally time to jump ship... Nvidia leaves me with no choice...

Newegg lists 4 brands of 3850. As I mentioned before, I do not have ANY experience with Radeons... Which brand should I go for?

Newegg Link

Sapphire
Powercolor
Diamond
HIS

Edit: Which reputable vendor does not charge sales tax for california???

 

[hans007]

Originally posted by: jodhas
I've definitely made up my mind to go with 3850.

evga 8800GT costs me a buck under $340 after tax and shipping... (Link) .... =( Video cards are WAAAY overpriced....

Again, 3850 does a fantastic job of most of the games out there and it can be had for $179... I've never owned a Radeon but I think it is finally time to jump ship... Nvidia leaves me with no choice...

Newegg lists 4 brands of 3850. As I mentioned before, I do not have ANY experience with Radeons... Which brand should I go for?

Newegg Link

Sapphire
Powercolor
Diamond
HIS

Edit: Which reputable vendor does not charge sales tax for california???

I am hoping that the world in conflict numbers increase. this is like the one game i'm even trying out right now and the results for it with the 3850 are abysmal. i am currently running an 8600gt (yes i know... but i got it for $70 on ebay) and honestly i am not sure its worth it for $180.

it seems to be great in most other games, so hopefully its just a driver thing since the 8800gt is over twice as fast from benchmarks i've seen.


i think now that monarch computer is dead, and ebuyer.com doesnt do the US anymore, the only reputable places to get stuff outside of california are directron and amazon.com though they generally are not cheap so its more of a wash there.

i

 

[hans007]

also i do have to agree that video cards are ludicrously overpriced now. then again look at nvidia's stock price, nvidia is worth over twice as much as AMD now.


i remember i think i got a voodoo5 5500 in 2001 and it was maybe $250 (i think i got a rebate) and that was pretty much the fastest card you could get (i think a geforce 2 cost about the same at the time).

that said, $250 in 2001 dollars is no where near $600 in 2007 dollars, so video card price inflation sure has gone up. even before 2001 a full sli rig say in 1999 for dual voodoo2 12mb pci was maybe $400. and that was top of the line then (no sli with voodoo5 obviously). so again $400 in 1999 is probably not worth $1200 or wahtever dual 8800gtxes costs... hell if you invested your 1999 money in euros and held it until now its still wouldnt be worth $1200. haha.

 

[TMoney468]

Originally posted by: jodhas
Newegg lists 4 brands of 3850. As I mentioned before, I do not have ANY experience with Radeons... Which brand should I go for?

Newegg Link

Sapphire
Powercolor
Diamond
HIS

Edit: Which reputable vendor does not charge sales tax for california???

From personal experience, stay away from Sapphire. Their tech support is horrible, they're a Chinese company, and they charge your $15 for an RMA plus the cost of shipping your card out to them. I had a x1950 pro that never worked properly, but luckily I RMA's through NewEgg and got all my money back.

 

[nonameo]

I hear HIS and powercolor are good. I don't know about diamond, they've gone through some hand changing since I last bought from them.

edit: asus is also making 38xx cards now.

 

[bamacre]

Originally posted by: TMoney468

Originally posted by: jodhas
Newegg lists 4 brands of 3850. As I mentioned before, I do not have ANY experience with Radeons... Which brand should I go for?

Newegg Link

Sapphire
Powercolor
Diamond
HIS

Edit: Which reputable vendor does not charge sales tax for california???

From personal experience, stay away from Sapphire. Their tech support is horrible, they're a Chinese company, and they charge your $15 for an RMA plus the cost of shipping your card out to them. I had a x1950 pro that never worked properly, but luckily I RMA's through NewEgg and got all my money back.

:thumbsup:

 

[vailr]

Originally posted by: TMoney468

Originally posted by: jodhas
Newegg lists 4 brands of 3850. As I mentioned before, I do not have ANY experience with Radeons... Which brand should I go for?

Newegg Link

Sapphire
Powercolor
Diamond
HIS

Edit: Which reputable vendor does not charge sales tax for california???

From personal experience, stay away from Sapphire. Their tech support is horrible, they're a Chinese company, and they charge your $15 for an RMA plus the cost of shipping your card out to them. I had a x1950 pro that never worked properly, but luckily I RMA's through NewEgg and got all my money back.

Are there any video card or motherboard makers that AREN'T located in China? Either: Taiwan or mainland China.

 

[BladeVenom]

Originally posted by: bamacre
For newer games, 256MB of vram just isn't enough. When are the new higher-end Nvidia cards going to be released?

Did you read Anandtech's review? I'm not seeing a bottleneck until it gets to 2560 x 1600, and that was only in Bioshock.

 

[hans007]

Originally posted by: vailr

Originally posted by: TMoney468

Originally posted by: jodhas
Newegg lists 4 brands of 3850. As I mentioned before, I do not have ANY experience with Radeons... Which brand should I go for?

Newegg Link

Sapphire
Powercolor
Diamond
HIS

Edit: Which reputable vendor does not charge sales tax for california???

From personal experience, stay away from Sapphire. Their tech support is horrible, they're a Chinese company, and they charge your $15 for an RMA plus the cost of shipping your card out to them. I had a x1950 pro that never worked properly, but luckily I RMA's through NewEgg and got all my money back.

Are there any video card or motherboard makers that AREN'T located in China? Either: Taiwan or mainland China.

i think this is because some people think diamond, bfg or evga are american.

and they sort of are, but all the stuff is still made in china, just the public facing parts are american.

 

[jodhas]

The difference between 3870 and 3850 is obviously gpu speed, ram speed and the memory technology. Is GDDR4 much superior than GDDR3? Also, what is the overclockability on the 3850?

 

[bamacre]

Originally posted by: jodhas
The difference between 3870 and 3850 is obviously gpu speed, ram speed and the memory technology. Is GDDR4 much superior than GDDR3? Also, what is the overclockability on the 3850?

Do you see any 3870's in stock?

 

[XNice]

Originally posted by: jodhas
I've definitely made up my mind to go with 3850.

evga 8800GT costs me a buck under $340 after tax and shipping... (Link) .... =( Video cards are WAAAY overpriced....

Again, 3850 does a fantastic job of most of the games out there and it can be had for $179... I've never owned a Radeon but I think it is finally time to jump ship... Nvidia leaves me with no choice...

Yah they do, wait. Give it two weeks and you will be able to snatch an 8800Gt for $229 or less.

 

[Karaktu]

It looks like the 512MB 3850 is going to be a pretty nice card (judging from Powercolor's site). They list the core as 720 and the memory as 900 (1800 effective). And a different cooler to boot.

http://www.ngohq.com/home.php?...les&go=read&arc_id=137

 

[Geraldo8022]

While there are a lot of posts and talk about which is faster, is there any consideration given to which might produce the better actual quality on screen in regards to movies? And also sharper text? These old eyes need all the help they can get. Judging by that recent article on Toms the Radeon had less "noise" and so might be expected to give the better picture. I am always skeptical when people simply post numbers in lieu of subjective impressions. I don't game, just HTPC and SOHO.

 

[Stas]

DO NOT BUY SAPPHIRE! P.O.S. product with horrible support. They are the ones that came out with 1950Pro that didn't even cool properly at stock clocks. I with I would've bought PowerColor back then. Go with HIS or PowerColor FTW!

And, yes, ATI cards do output a better picture in 2D than nVidia.

 

[hans007]

Originally posted by: jodhas
The difference between 3870 and 3850 is obviously gpu speed, ram speed and the memory technology. Is GDDR4 much superior than GDDR3? Also, what is the overclockability on the 3850?

a huge part of it is the memory amount.


some of the benchmark results seem to indicate taht some games at high res with say AA on grind to a halt with 256mb

 

[bamacre]

Originally posted by: Stas
DO NOT BUY SAPPHIRE! P.O.S. product with horrible support. They are the ones that came out with 1950Pro that didn't even cool properly at stock clocks. I with I would've bought PowerColor back then. Go with HIS or PowerColor FTW!

And, yes, ATI cards do output a better picture in 2D than nVidia.

Agreed.

And I think one big problem with ATI cards is the vendors. Thare are a couple of decent vendors, but there are much better ones for Nvidia's gpu's. eVGA and XFX, IMO, have the best warranties and the best support.

 

[vailr]

Originally posted by: bamacre

Originally posted by: Stas
DO NOT BUY SAPPHIRE! P.O.S. product with horrible support. They are the ones that came out with 1950Pro that didn't even cool properly at stock clocks. I with I would've bought PowerColor back then. Go with HIS or PowerColor FTW!

And, yes, ATI cards do output a better picture in 2D than nVidia.

Agreed.

And I think one big problem with ATI cards is the vendors. Thare are a couple of decent vendors, but there are much better ones for Nvidia's gpu's. eVGA and XFX, IMO, have the best warranties and the best support.

Asus's Radeon cards are probably the "pick of the litter". But then, you pay more for Asus.

 

[BladeVenom]

Originally posted by: bamacre
And I think one big problem with ATI cards is the vendors.

Buy ATI cards from Newegg since they have a one year replacement policy.

 

[bamacre]

Originally posted by: BladeVenom

Originally posted by: bamacre
And I think one big problem with ATI cards is the vendors.

Buy ATI cards from Newegg since they have a one year replacement policy.

One year is not enough.

I found a Diamond 3870 in stock for a reasonable price, but their warranty is only one year. Screw that. Definitely worth a little extra money for an 8800 GT from eVGA or XFX who would replace the card long after one year if need be.

 

[BladeVenom]

One year is plenty. If it lasts that long it will probably last the lifetime of your computer. Lifetime warranty may sound nice, but how often do you really need it? An old video card is almost worthless anyway at least to gamers.

 

[Johnniewalker]

Originally posted by: hans007
also i do have to agree that video cards are ludicrously overpriced now. then again look at nvidia's stock price, nvidia is worth over twice as much as AMD now.

I didn't believe this so I checked and wow, Nvidia is worth 17 billion vs AMD's 7 billion. WOW!

 

[Aiden]

Originally posted by: BladeVenom
One year is plenty. If it lasts that long it will probably last the lifetime of your computer. Lifetime warranty may sound nice, but how often do you really need it? An old video card is almost worthless anyway at least to gamers.

1 year warrenty is not enough when your compition is offering limited lifetime. If amd wants to compete they need to start doing so. Most gamers do not replace video cards on a yearly basis, in the sub 300$ range. my 7900GT got an rma after 18 months becuase of artifacting, and i was thankful for the warrenty.

The MSRP should be 230-250$ for the 8800GT 512 non overclocked version. If supply was not an issue, you could get the card for 210-230$ from most etailers imo. Unfortuntely i did not jump on the offer from fry's so im stuck waiting till prices drop until after the holidays or going with ATI.

 

[bamacre]

Originally posted by: BladeVenom
One year is plenty. If it lasts that long it will probably last the lifetime of your computer. Lifetime warranty may sound nice, but how often do you really need it? An old video card is almost worthless anyway at least to gamers.

Totally disagree. And not just for my personal use, but for my business use as all. I offer systems with a 3yr warranty, and I need hardware inside it to have a warranty of at least that amount of time.

As for personal use, I had a >1yr old 7900 GT that went bad, and XFX replaced it with a 7950 GT. Now, had they only had a 1yr warranty, I would have been forced to go out and buy a brand new card.

If they expect the card to last longer than one year, then they should offer a warranty based off their expections. If they only offer me a one-year warranty, then that tells me it's a piece of junk not worthy of my money.