Yeah, the ATI cards are just as predicted. Slower than the 8800GT, but also a bit cheaper. The fact that the HD3870 uses a two-slot cooling design probably means a lot of people will get an 8800GT instead (if they can find one). The cards do get just as hot as well, although they seem to be quieter under load. It was good of ATI to come out with a mainstream card or two, and the features are good, but if they want to regain some respect, they need to come out with a beast of a card to put nVidia back in it's place (like the good 'ol Radeon 9700 did).
[edit: after reading the article, looks like ATI is planning an HD3870X2; a dual GPU card along the lines of a 7950GX2. Wonder if nVidia will have an answer to that...]