Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 512MB DDR4 PCIE DUAL DVI-I / TVO - 100215L

These cards are the best performance/price option available as of this writing (January 2008). Until the next line of Nvidia and ATI offerings hit the market, these cards in crossfire will outperform just about anything out there. Some would say SLI 8800GTs are better performers; in some benchmarks they do out-perform the 3870s, but try finding a pair for retail! They are not available anywhere. If you're looking for benchmarks, check here: http://www.legitreviews.com/article/605/1/ Or here: http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/11/15/amd_radeon_hd_3800/ My personal expeience can be summed up in a word: Phenomenal. These cards just simply dominate most games. Stalker in 1650x1050, max graphics, max everything, at 100+ frames Bioshock maxed, 65+ frames My only complaints have to do with installation: Somewhat of a problem in smaller cases, because these cards are pretty long. They fit fine in my Antec P180 case, but I had to rearrange my SATA cables to make them fit properly. Also, it as difficult for me to get crossfire to work, because previous to installing these cards, I had a TV tuner in my PCIE 1X slot, and even after I removed it, ATI's drivers were not recognizing the cards as a pair (no enable crossfire check-box in Catalyst Control Center). I had to uninstall all ATI drivers, boot into Safe Mode and run driver cleaner, re-boot, and then reinstall Catalyst to get the system to see both cards as a pair. I don't think this is an issue with the cards, but with ATI Drivers. If you're looking for a single card option, this is a good buy. If you want two cards for SLI or crossfire, this is THE BEST BUY right now.
 
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