Radeon 3870 vs. GeForce 8800GT

[Matt]

Hey guys. I'm struggling to see which of the Radeon 3870 and the
GeForce 8800GT has the better performance.

Basically I'm getting a motherboard with an X48 chipset, so I'm
leaning towards the Radeon so that in the future I could CrossFire two
3870's rather then buying a completly new card. Tomshardware also
suggests that the Radeon is a far superior card:

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/charts/graphics-cards/3dmark06-v1-0-2-hdr-sm3-0-score,538.html#

(Click "View all products" at the bottom)

However, I went on the 3dMark06 ORB comparison website to check this
for myself. To contradict Tomshardware, this website states that the
GeForce 8800GT is the superior card:

http://www.yougamers.com/hardware/stats/3dmark06/priceandperformance/

Therefore, I thought I would ask the experts! Which of these two cards
(which are roughly the same price) will be the best card for me as a
reasonabely serious gamer?

Kind Rgeards,

Matt

 

[Matt]

Sorry, missed one thing.

My statement about the Radeon 3870 being superior on Tomshardware was
based on the 8800GT being overclocked to get a score of 6023. Well
that's what I'm assuming "OC" stands for! If I'm mistaken feel free to
correct me

Kind Regards,

Matt

 

[Matt]

A "reasonably serious" gamer would look past these aging chipsets and pick
up a low-priced Radeon 4850.

You are in the UK? 100 GBP for the Powercolor 512MB version:http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-089-PC

Am I not risking getting a sub-standard card with a cheap, noisy fan
by buying the lowest price 4850?

Kind Regards,

Matt

 

[?Utf-8?B?aG9uZXlzYnVubnk=?=]

see my comments to you in Nvidia group about 4850 and 4870.

 

[Matt]

Nope. This early in the 48xx chipset's lifecycle, the lowest-priced 4850
simply means it uses the reference ATi board design with the reference ATi
cooler. This way the card vendor doesn't incurr any additional engineering
and development expenses.

As I can get a top 3870 for £100, is their a decent performance
difference between the 3870 and the 4850 to make it worth my while?

Kind Regards,

Matt