ATi HD 3870 X2 (R680); Official Specifications & Images

[da-key]

So where you been hiding past few years?

Radeon 9 series pwned nVidia for good while, Catalyst drivers have been improving monthly.


I feel sorry for ATi as 3870 is all the R6XX chip can give and all they have as a replacement is R700 which is going to be MCM package.

CorssfireX and Hybrid Crossfire are warm ups for the R7XX GPU's.

A proper launch for the 3870X2 would mean immediate availability, good reference OC, and good drivers. MSRP decides how many computers you want your product in. Now then...

I over clock my system generally to near single stage levels with a chiller that can go -40c. My Opteron 185 does 3.3 24/7 bench. 3.2 in case. My 3dmark score is over 11k with a 8800gts 320 and ddr s939. I use DI from time to time on a bench to test CPU's. Gaming is my focus.

So, I want a reliable, usable, affordable product from a manu, that has a high standard for its OEMs in the support area, on launch day.

No reason to hide from standards.

[Mike EFix]

Should draw less power than 2 seperate 3870's. Memory is 1 GB total, 512 MB per GPU.

Thanks for the info . ..
Question: In single card mode with the the 3870X2, is all of the 1gig memory usable and what about 3870X2-CF? What would be the memory situation using that setup

[w0mbat]

wow, the card is going to be very long.
7900gx2 style

No! The HD3870 X2 is SHORTER than a 8800GTX. So stop all this bs here about the lengths.

[systemviper]

just let me know when I can buy it, then i'm interested

[realsmasher]

Thanks for the info . ..
Question: In single card mode with the the 3870X2, is all of the 1gig memory usable and what about 3870X2-CF? What would be the memory situation using that setup

rumors an german newspage said, that this card can, unlike 2 single 3870 which must have all data doubled, use full 1gb in CF mode because of some ringbus or whatever.

Not sure about single card, but who wants single card ?

anyway, 3870X2-CF will have use of only 512 or 1024mb, depending on the rumor(truth or not). 2gb ist not possible at all.

[X.T.R.E.M.E_ICE]

3870 X2 has two GPU's which means 2 waterblocks. atleast till someone makes a single block that covers both of them.


see the two retention brackets.

I already know that info.

[Helmore]

rumors an german newspage said, that this card can, unlike 2 single 3870 which must have all data doubled, use full 1gb in CF mode because of some ringbus or whatever.

Not sure about single card, but who wants single card ?

anyway, 3870X2-CF will have use of only 512 or 1024mb, depending on the rumor(truth or not). 2gb ist not possible at all.

That rumor is pure crap concerning the R680, it's a rumor that's about the upcoming R700. The rumor was that R700 will use 4 of the same chips and every chip would be a single stop on the ringbus-memory controller, just like R520/R580/R600/RV670 have 4 main stops on the ringbus internally, but this time each separate chips will be one of those stops.

[Brother Esau]

Question...........Can one of these cards be used in CROSSFIRE with the current one in my sig?? Or is it going to be a definite NO?

[Zytek_Fan]

Question...........Can one of these cards be used in CROSSFIRE with the current one in my sig?? Or is it going to be a definite NO?

Well you can CF a 3870 and a 3850, so short answer, yes...

[Brother Esau]

You Misunderstood I have (1) HIS HD 3870 already and would like to know if I bought one of the "NEW" Dual HD 3870 can I run it in CROSSFIRE with my Existing HD 3870 and if the answer is Yes what are the Drawbacks if any please??

[LordEC911]

i wonder how kinc is gonna cool this, i dont see any way to cool this beast with ln2. Gonna be realy hard, depending on how far appart those chips are. Looks like the distance is like 2 times a gddr4 chips, thats gonna be near to imposible to cool with a tube, let alone isolating the tube correctly

If two pots don't fit there will probably be a custom pot made.
What I'm thinking would work is a normal single large tube with two HS curving off to their own core.

I'm no DICE/LN2/Pot expert but I think that would work, might be pretty dang hard/expensive though.

[Zytek_Fan]

You Misunderstood I have (1) HIS HD 3870 already and would like to know if I bought one of the "NEW" Dual HD 3870 can I run it in CROSSFIRE with my Existing HD 3870 and if the answer is Yes what are the Drawbacks if any please??

I said the 3850 and 3870 can CF because CrossFireX allows CF with any cards in that generation. So any HD 3000 series card can CF with any other HD 3000 series card.

Drawbacks, don't any, CrossFireX drivers for triple and quadruple CF are supposed to be available by the time the 3870 X2 launches so nothing there. Maybe it just won't look that good in your case

[LyP0]

If two pots don't fit there will probably be a custom pot made.
What I'm thinking would work is a normal single large tube with two HS curving off to their own core.

I'm no DICE/LN2/Pot expert but I think that would work, might be pretty dang hard/expensive though.

then you'd need a design similar to kinpin's tek9 rev 3.0 but even wider and with a thicker base + more contact with the ln2. Thats gonna be to expensive to make for using it on just one card, cause the r700 is gonna be mcm so you wouldn't need the tube anymore.

[Torphoto]

hummm my new 3870 and a 3870x2 when released, sounds like crysis pawnage for me

[SNiiPE_DoGG]

for sure, i think that wiull be my place for this card, alongside the 3870.
would it limit overclock of the 3870(single) when in crossfire mode though?

[Syn.]

Acording to Intel 3870X2 will have 2GB GDDR4. Look in the grey box on the right.

[|ron]

1280 Shaders means that they're referring to a Crossfire of 3870 X2...
So 2GB of GDDR4 means that there is 1GB for each 3870X2... so 512MB for each RV670 if I'm not wrong

[Mareg]

Acording to Intel 3870X2 will have 2GB GDDR4. Look in the grey box on the right.

Nope, thats when using CF with two 3870X2.

[Unbornchild]

Exactly. "CrossfireX" means 4 3800 GPU's (with 512MB each).

[Origin_Unknown]

is it not the end of Jan yet?

[ANP !!!]

640 Stream processors , specs seems not bad. Lets see if AMD will price this good. Cant wait for Benches .
Power consumption would be moderate considering its a 55nm process .

[aMp]

Maybe I'm stupid, but shouldn't performance be roughly equal to two HD3870s in CF?

[LordEC911]

Maybe I'm stupid, but shouldn't performance be roughly equal to two HD3870s in CF?

I would believe so, unless they somehow worked/added some extra magic to the PLX chip or they found a major enhancement for their CF drivers.

[Philip_J_Fry]

nvidia failed with quad SLI last time with 7950 GX2 SLI only openGL game quake 4 performs as expected

http://techreport.com/articles.x/11006/6

but again u dotn see extra performance over 7900GTX until ur over 1600x1200 @ 4xAA ....

if ATI can pull this off, since their Crossfire DO Scale better than SLI ... I think ATI will bring the crown back .... unless nv somehow fix their quad SLI performance ...

[Bl4ck^!]

still wont run crysis @ max

wrong statement ;p it WILL run Crysis @ HIGH but with what performance ;>
HD2400 will run it also in High details