In terms of video signal, there should be no material difference providing the cables are equal quality and the distance / run of cable is short. You can get a DVI to HDMI adapter easily (many video cards include them now) if you want to use the HDMI input for other reasons.
Seraphic,
I'm afraid I can't find a direct comparison for you, but another hardware site, Tom's Hardware, has a very useful graphics card comparo chart they keep -reasonably - up to date. The 3870 CF configuration is there...