ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2: 2 GPUs 1 Card, A Return to the High End
by Anand Lal Shimpi on January 28, 2008 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Final Words
It has been far too long since AMD/ATI have been at the top of the performance charts; the crown had been lost on both CPU and GPU fronts, but today's Radeon HD 3870 X2 introduction begins to change that. The Radeon HD 3870 X2 is the most elegant single-card, multi-GPU design we've seen to date and the performance is indeed higher than any competing single-card NVIDIA solution out today.
AMD is also promising the X2 at a fairly attractive price point; at $449 it is more expensive than NVIDIA's GeForce 8800 GTS 512, but it's also consistently faster in the majority of titles we tested. If you're looking for something in between the performance of an 8800 GTS 512 and a 8800 GT 512 SLI setup, the Radeon HD 3870 X2 is perfect.
Even more appealing is the fact that the 3870 X2 will work in all motherboards: CrossFire support is not required. In fact, during our testing it was very easy to forget that we were dealing with a multi-GPU board since we didn't run into any CrossFire scaling or driver issues. We're hoping that this is a sign of things to come, but we can't help but worry about the future of these multi-GPU cards.
The fact that both AMD and NVIDIA are committed to them is promising, and hopefully that means an even better experience when it comes to compatibility and performance with CrossFire and SLI (single-card or not), but we've got no crystal ball - only time will tell how the driver support evolves in the future.
But today, we have a victory for AMD. The past few months have shown a very different graphics division of AMD than we've seen since the first talks of the acquisition. The Radeon HD 2900 XT was a failure and now AMD has arguably the fastest single-card graphics card on the market. The only worry we'd have if we were in AMD's shoes is that the 3870 X2 was made by putting a couple of 3870s onto a single board; if AMD can do it, NVIDIA can as well. And we all know how the 3870 vs. 8800 GT matchup turned out.
What AMD really needs is its next-generation high end GPU, the 3870 X2 will buy the top performance spot for a little while but it's R700 that we really need to see.
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poohbear - Monday, January 28, 2008 - link
well its about time, good job amd, lets see u maintain the performance lead damn it!boe - Monday, January 28, 2008 - link
Howdy,I appreciate any benchmarks we can get but if you do a followup on this card with newer drivers, I hope you will consider the following
1. A comparison with a couple of older cards x1900 and 7900
2. A sound measurement of the cards e.g. db at full utilation from 2'
3. Crossfire performance if this card supports it.
4. Benchmarking on FEAR - all bells and whistles turned on
5. DX10 vs. DX9 performance.
Thanks again for creating this article - I'm considering this card.
perzy - Monday, January 28, 2008 - link
Am I the only one tired of all these multicores? I guess programming gets even more complex now. I guess the future all games will have development cycles like Duke Nukem forever -10+ years....?Are the GPU's hitting the heatwall 2 now?
Soon I'll stop reading these hardware sites. The only reports in the near future will be 'yet another core added.' Yipee.
wien - Monday, January 28, 2008 - link
Coding for a multi-GPU setup is not really any different that coding for a single-GPU one. All the complexity is handled by the driver, unlike with multi-core CPUs.FXi - Monday, January 28, 2008 - link
Have to say they did a good job, not great, but very good. We do need to see the 700 though, as this won't hold them for long.The other thing both camps need to address is dual monitors using SLI/CF. It's been forever since this tech has been out and it hasn't been fixed. Dual screens are commonplace and people like them. Could be one large and one smaller, or dual midrange but people want the FPS without losing their 2nd screen.
I'm sure there will be a rash of promises to fix this that won't materialize for years :) (as before)
ChronoReverse - Tuesday, January 29, 2008 - link
Actually, that was one of the things that was fixed by ATI. Dual screens will work even if it's in a window and _spanning_ the monitors. I'll see if I can find the review that showed that.murphyslabrat - Monday, January 28, 2008 - link
Come on AMD, don't die until we get the Radeon 4870 x2!Retratserif - Monday, January 28, 2008 - link
Third to last paragraph.The fact "hat" both?
Overall good article. To bad we didnt get to see temps or overclocks.
PeteRoy - Monday, January 28, 2008 - link
Is Nvidia and ATI will just put more of the same instead of innovate new technologies.Wasn't that what killed 3dfx, Nvidia should know.
kilkennycat - Monday, January 28, 2008 - link
The next-gen GPU family at nVidia is in full development. Hold on to your wallet till the middle of this year (2008). You may be in for a very pleasant surprise.