http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3151

3850 looks like a good price/performance card. The 3870 still looses out to the 8800GT and of course the now 1 year old 8800GTX. It's cheaper than the 8800GT, but on average 15% slower. I doubt people would have any problem paying $20 more for 15%.

Quad Crossfire anyone

i'm disappointed and am starting to worry about the future of AMD. lackluster product releases that are behind the competition performance wise.

Well the 3870 may lag behind abit but atleast its available in quanity. It took me forever to get my 8800 GT and the 3870's can overclock to math the gt speeds and on top of that there about $70 less in the end. I think this has been a good sign of things to come from ati and i epect the dual 3870 cards and the 3900 series will be revitilizing to the company when there launched. Not that it matters but the 3800 series is the only DX10.1 compliant card as well.

The only sites I've seen with the 3870 listed have a 1 to 3 week lead time. You could at least buy an 8800GT on the release date if you looked hard enough. (and get it delivered the next day)

up untill yesterday there were prob 6 sites that had alot of 3870's in stock, that has changed now but from ehat i have read the restock time will be weekly not monthly like the 8800gt.

A co-worker of mine ordered a 3870 on Saturday without trouble finding it and it's due to arrive today. My roommate got an 8800GT last week but it needed a lot more running around to find it and it was the last one available at the Dartmouth Futureshop. I'm not sure if that's a great comparison or not though. =\

...that once again we have to wait "for the future" to see AMD's trials and tribulations come to fruition. Personally I'll be getting some of them 3870x2's in ye olden "Spider" box. It may not be the fastest, but at least it's better than having only to chose from overpriced NVidia + Intel. Monopolies are bad, mmmkay!