Quote Originally Posted by v_rr View Post
Beat for few fps. New releases of drivers can perfectly put things equal.
As far as the price, the HD 3850 have advantages that permit lower price more than Nvidia can.
The core size is smaller on HD 3850, cheaper gddr3, as already custom made pcb´s by partners.

You will see HD 3850 in the 120$ price sooner then 9600GT. Or Nvidia lowers their margins and go to price war with HD 3850, witch is very good for costumers, but will hurt Nvidia finances because this segment of price is far far away the most important for ATI and Nvidia.
AMD has pretty much maxed out the drivers for HD 3850. were as the 9600gt is not even out yet. so they will gain much more in new drivers than AMD. also nvidia has been making chips on 65nm longer than AMD on 55nm and you don't know how big the G-94 core is. i am betting it will be smaller than the RV670 as it has only 64 shadders. the HD 3850 is not made to be a $120 card it is made to be a $180 card were as the 9600gt is just the latest in a family of $120 cards.

however it will still come down to overclocking.