As I said during my Radeon HD 3870 architectural review, I’m a big fan of the product and I believe that Sapphire’s implementation is a good one. While Sapphire hasn’t changed much in terms of card design—it’s essentially a reference card wearing Sapphire-branded make up—the company has included a comprehensive bundle in the box. And when you factor in that most of what’s included in the box is useful, the deal just sweetens itself a bit.

The one thing that’s plaguing both not just AMD’s partners though, but also Nvidia’s is availability of these newly released graphics cards. Sapphire’s Radeon HD 3870 card is currently unavailable for purchase at any of the major UK online retailers, but it’s on pre-order at a very tempting ?140 (inc. VAT).

If you consider that Nvidia’s GeForce 8800 GT is starting at around ?170—and in some cases going over and above ?200—Sapphire’s card looks to be pretty good value. Once you add in the good overclocking headroom, the deal almost seems too good to be true. Thankfully it’s not (as long as Sapphire can meet the demand for the product) and, if you can find the product in stock, I wholeheartedly recommend this card.