The RV670 GPU is really making some nice strides in getting AMD back in the arena of competitive graphics cards. The reasons are simple, low-power, lower heat , performance and price. It’s these four areas which I feel the 3870 does a good job of tackling head-on.

Its lower power requirements come by way of its 55-nanometer process which allows AMD to keep the transistors very small so they consume less power and therefore have lower heat emissions to boot. An additional benefit of the smaller die means that there’re more chips per wafer board and that ends up bring the retail pricing down as well. So no matter how you look at it, AMD’s move to the smaller die process is a huge win for both AMD and the consumer.

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