AMD has fired back against the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT juggernaut, with a new line of mainstream performance cards. The ATI Radeon HD 3800 series offers two models at launch, the ATI Radeon HD 3850 with 256MB of GDDR3 memory and the ATI Radeon HD 3870 with 512MB GDDR4 memory. These cards both use a 55nm process technology, and include Microsoft DirectX10.1 support. Another interesting option is the ATI CrossFireX feature, which offers tri and quad multi-GPU support for Radeon HD 3800 series buyers.

Performance-per-watt has really become a catch phrase over at AMD, and the company is quick to promote the Radeon HD 3800 series as the first graphics processors to use TSMC's 55nm process technology, which has allowed for a 2X increase in performance-per-watt. AMD is also pushing the enthusiast-performance-at-a-mainstream-price button, and said Rick Bergman, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Graphics Product Group, AMD, "With the introduction of the ATI Radeon HD 3800 series we are redefining the market for enthusiast graphics with a new class of price, performance and features that have never been seen before in this industry." AMD has set a $179 MSRP for the ATI Radeon HD 3850 256MB, while the Radeon HD 3870 512MB is a bit higher at $219.