Quote Originally Posted by HelixPC;
The 3870 was never a high end card, it might have been to ATI, but the rest of the enthusiast world did not consider it a high end card. The 8800GT was beating it hands down in every game tested. 8800GT was a $200 card at the time. The 3800 still struggled with AA.
It was indeed high end in the ATI lineup, replacing the 2900XT. The status of nvidias products at the time is irelevant. The 5870 doesn change the position of the gtx285 in nvidia's lineup, does it? Nor does the i7 on the phenom II line. Each manufacturer has their own product line, and at the time the 3870 was at the top of ATI's.

--Matt