With its release during the massive hardware holliday last year, the HD 3850, the least of four major cards, is easily overlooked. That’s really a shame, since it’s really a top-notch gaming card. Obviously, it’s not the first choice for enthusiasts, but from a value perspective, it’s without a doubt the best choice.

AMD has replaced the confusing suffixes on their old cards with a more intuitive number scheme: 50 = Pro, 70 = XT, and X2, for all intensive porpoises is XTX. Which brings about another comparison.

The mere mention of the ATI Radeon X1950 Pro should warm busoms; a couple years back it cinched together the price of the mainstream bracket with the performance of serious gaming hardware. It, at the time, was the best video accelerator, was the first to use CrossFire bridges and not dongles, and was an all-around improvement for ATI’s lineup.

The HD 3850 is in every way the spiritual successor to the X1950 Pro: enthusiast hardware priced for the mainstream.

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