Okay, I know you guys are bored already about this kinda topic, yeah Im bored too.
But now just, lets give opinions on WHICH IS MORE FUTUREPROOF
64 stream processors is currently enough, but will it last?
what about the AMD card? will it last too?
Which will last longer?

I think the 3870 will last longer, what's ur opinions?

Nvidia's SP and AMD SP are different architecture however 3870 does more GFLOPS than a 8800GTS 512 with 128SP. It doesn't necessarily mean more performance though or it's just untapped performance or can't make real use in games. Drivers might be bad? Who knows...

The biggest bottleneck for 3870 is it's TMU's compared to 9600gt or any other G80/G92 which makes 9600gt come even close to 3870. Will TMU make it less future proof?

What I know is that you want to buy a card that is more balanced to be more future proof. These cards both lack one way or another. One lacks SP and the other lacks Texture fillrate. Which goes first is up to the game developers. In more recent past however it came down to SP which 3870 seems to be better at. We have enough bandwidth currently to play high resolutions but more doesn't hurt it either when considering AA and pixel performance does bottleneck by bandwidth.

come on....there is no point comparing their architexture.just buy what u can afford.both cards can last long if you can live with reduced res and quality for future demanding games......

Yeah but the O.P is trying to find out which would last longer. Considering 7900gs can't even play crysis @ medium unless 800x600 and 1950pro can do 1280x1024 I consider that architecture a failure.

It is not meaningful to compare 3870 and 9600GT coz after both of them are price down, there are still USD$ 50 different and is actually in different market range. Yet 3870 will better architecture but Nvidia with better driver so 9600GT is still with better gaming performance than 3870. However I won't think any of these 2 display cards could long lasting as the middle range 9800 series and HD4870 is rolling out.

the 9600gt will be better.

and how amd advert their card with 320 sp.but actually the number or SP is only 64SP.and because each SP for 5 individual processing units inside it.so 64x5=320 so they say they have the so called "320SP".

which personally i think they are lying to the consumers and make us thing their cardis more powerful because they have "IMPRESSIVE" 320SP compare to the 128SP in the GTS and 64SP in 9600GT.but how they word it sort of get away with it by using the word Shader and SP.

but when you look at the TMU and ROP the 9600gt become superior to the 3870with 32TMU and 165 ROP to 16TMU and 16 ROP of the 3870.

But at the end of the day we are comparing to card in different level one at mid range and the other one at high end.the 9600gt should be the direct competitor to the HD3850, and the outcome to be the 3850 is no match to 9600GT and the 9600GT end up competiting with 3870 with its performance and bargain price!

looking into your budget seems to be the best solution.all new cards will wither out in few months.just buy what u can afford and change it when its due.

I just bought a passive cooled 9600GT from GIGABYTE (GV-NX96T512HP) last Thursday. I picked it over a 3870 because I couldn't find a passive cooled 3870 where I live. Fan cooled 3870s are about 15EUR more expensive here (so the choice was easy).

The 9600GT outperforms the 3870 at higher resolutions (I have a 24" LCD) and was cheaper (this one is factory overclocked to 720MHz(650MHz stock)).
It idles below 45°C on the Windows XP desktop.

As for futereproofing ... In my experience cards below 200 EUR generally last about 18 months before they become obsolete. 36 months before they become useless even at reduced resolutions (my GF6600GT just did that on me).

if you use you pc to watch movies, its save to use 3870 as ati offers better video playback quality, if you got tv in the family room, its better if you buy 9600gt.

in my opinion i would say the ati 3870 is more future proof because ati has new drivers every month and increase the performance of the cards unlike nvidia drivers and ati supports directX 10.1 for future supported games. So it seems to me that the ati card would be a better choice.

It's different architecturally but 3870 does have more powerful SP compared to 9600gt.

3870 got 64 processors, but each of them got, like, 5 embeded ones, so it get 320.
That's why I think the 3870 is more future proof, just look at the X1900XT and the 7900GS, playing recent games like Crysis...

the 9600 GT excels with Filtering on. But in the long run, you won't be able to play games anyway with Filtering on, so I think the 3870 will have the advantage in the future, because it outperforms with filtering off and it has DX 10.1 (pointless now, but maybe not in the future)

Yeah, L1qu1d, you got a point

I vote neither

I say this because it seems that game developers and Microsoft would rather force the cardmakers optimize their hardware for the code rather than write the code for the cards. More often than not it seems "forward looking" cards are only marginally better in the long run. I'd say buy what its best at the time, especially if you are looking in the sub $200 range. By the time the new features (like DX10.1) are actually implemented, the requirements will have changed or the cards won't have enough horsepower.

As for which card is most "forward looking" my vote goes with the 3870.