3870 X2 Reviews

[Unbornchild]

Bit-Tech testbed was a Q6600 (3.0GHz), Maximus Formula however when they test for power consumption they use a E6750 (2.66GHz) Gigabyte X38-DS5

And why do they (and others too) continually keep naming the card ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB while in fact it is a dual 512MB card and not a 1GB card, the name is HD 3870 X2.

Also a Dutch review. http://core.tweakers.net/nieuws/5154...d-3870-x2.html. They claim the new driver gives the exact same results -including the 'crysis artifacts'- as the previous one (with the glitches from before the feedback from all the test-previewers)... while i read on a trustworthy review (kill me, i don't remember which one (HWCanucks?) that the crysis artifacts and many more had been fixed in the latest drivers as a result of the feedback. And the Dutch testbed is a 780i board. Do they even know what they're doing i wonder. I think NO.

[Triggerhappynz]

which drivers, they come on CD ?

8.4 comes with the cd but no cross fire support for the card

[malik22]

bustamove44 do you have vista would like to see some ingame fps with everything Vhigh in Dx10 and also to see if it has the 3870 issues of going into 2d mode while gaming(in Vista not xp).

Regards

[zbogorgon]

8.4 comes with the cd but no cross fire support for the card

indeed, and who says we tested 3870X2 CF ?

[Triggerhappynz]

indeed, and who says we tested 3870X2 CF ?

Sorry i thought there was a pic with 2 cards in cf mode

[Brother Esau]

Hows about one of you guys Host the CAT 8.4 Drivers???

[zbogorgon]

Sorry i thought there was a pic with 2 cards in cf mode

there is but it says below the pic, that XFire is not possible, because there are yet no drivers that support it, that we could expect them at the end of feb and we'll report back about Xfire then

[Triggerhappynz]

there is but it says below the pic, that XFire is not possible, because there are yet no drivers that support it, that we could expect them at the end of feb and we'll report back about Xfire then

Thanks for that

[BustaH]

bustamove44 do you have vista would like to see some ingame fps with everything Vhigh in Dx10 and also to see if it has the 3870 issues of going into 2d mode while gaming(in Vista not xp).

Regards

Hi Malik, Sorry but I dont have Vista on any of my machines so cant do the test... btw, does anyone know where I can get the 8.4 drivers? the ones im using are 8.1.

[malik22]

Hi Malik, Sorry but I dont have Vista on any of my machines so cant do the test... btw, does anyone know where I can get the 8.4 drivers? the ones im using are 8.1.

No worries thanks anyway.



Unbornchild so the card only uses 512mb of vmem like crossfired 3870?

[Unbornchild]

Well yes. The card has 2 x 512MB VRAM. Just like 2 HD3870 cards in crossfire.

[malik22]

Well yes. The card has 2 x 512MB VRAM. Just like 2 HD3870 cards in crossfire.

What I meant was does it use 512 or 1gb?

[mascaras]

PowerColor's new HD 3870 X2 design

PowerColor has an interesting version of of the Radeon HD 3870 X2 which is actually shorter than the reference design from ATI. This card features a brand new cooler and it requires just two 6-pin power connectors (no 8-pin). We found out that the card is overclocked, but we're not sure to what frequencies. Different power connectors is good news for those who don’t have an 8-pin PCIe connector on their PSU.




Due to the shorter PCB, the PLX chip has been relocated. Since it doesn’t require cooling it was simply pushed down, and the resulting empty space between the two RV670 chips has been used up by one of them, so the card ended up being shorter.





The card is much lighter than the reference design, and it’s mostly due to the aluminum cooler that performs really well.

PowerColor also has a reference design card running at 825/900MHz and it sells for €391, here. The price of this overclocked version will be a bit steeper.


http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?op...=5427&Itemid=1

regards

[DilTech]

What I meant was does it use 512 or 1gb?

Both gpus have 512mb each. It has 1 gb total, but seeing how it's technically CF on a card, it has to store the same info in both gpu's memory banks, resulting in it functioning like it was only 512mb.

[BustaH]

Both gpus have 512mb each. It has 1 gb total, but seeing how it's technically CF on a card, it has to store the same info in both gpu's memory banks, resulting in it functioning like it was only 512mb.

I cant see how this can be right?
If it was surely the card would'nt perform like 'two' single 3870's in crossfire would it?

surely it would be getting results somewhere in between a single 3870 and a crossfire [two singles in cf setup?]
If your thinking was correct...could you explain?

[Eastcoasthandle]

Users are starting to post their experiences
here is one thread right here
Q6600 @ 3.6
what looks like a Maximus Formula
what looks like a P182 Case
Using a HIS X2

Cod 4 3 minute run through on the bog level (sp) 4xfsaa 1920x1200 all options maxed

2008-01-30 15:31:21 - iw3sp
Frames: 12987 - Time: 180000ms - Avg: 72.150 - Min: 29 - Max: 176

[mascaras]

I received a Powercolor HD3870X2 for tests today , now we need new catalyst 8.2 , they were suposed to be released today , where are they???


regards

[LaMpiR]

And why do you want comparison with ultra ? 8800GTS (G92) is as fast or even faster and much much cheaper ?!?

Faster? Then tom's hardware is doing something wrong here if 8800GTS 512MB is faster than ultra...
http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/01/...e_fury_maxx_2/

[whocaresbg]

I received a Powercolor HD3870X2 for tests today , now we need new catalyst 8.2 , they were suposed to be released today , where are they???


regards

Maybe released later today . Would you use G80 Ultra for comparison ?

[mascaras]

Maybe released later today . Would you use G80 Ultra for comparison ?

nope , i dont have one

only Hd3870X2 tests , but we need a new catalyst , because with the actual drivers de card suks realy hard in few games .............


regards

[whocaresbg]

HD 3870 in Crossfire vs. HD 3870 X2 :

http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/12...k05/index.html

Looks promising .

[Unbornchild]

Nice!
Note:

We’re still using the official Catalyst 8.1 driver as well.

[eric66]

HD 3870 in Crossfire vs. HD 3870 X2 :

http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/12...k05/index.html

Looks promising .

x2 is oced

[v_rr]

x2 is oced

It´s his default clock (overclocked by manufacter)

[DilTech]

I cant see how this can be right?
If it was surely the card would'nt perform like 'two' single 3870's in crossfire would it?

surely it would be getting results somewhere in between a single 3870 and a crossfire [two singles in cf setup?]
If your thinking was correct...could you explain?

Easily man...

A LOT less latency than regular cross-fire.

You see, regular cross-fire has to do a majority of it's communication through the chipset. Meanwhile this card has it's own splitter and does it's communicating all on card. As such, there's less latency all the way across the board.

ALL current multi-gpu set-ups have to duplicate data for each gpu in ram. They have to, because both gpus need the same textures and shader information as they both work together to render the scene. Essentially they all run as if they had the same amount of ram as the lowest card does. That's just how things have to work currently, and why I believe the R700 will have to have an external memory controller for the MCM package.

To sum it up, this card is like a lower latency CF set up.