ATI HD 3870X2

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Read ATI Radeon HD 3870X2 1 GB at insidehw.com

[img]/3870x2_inshw.jpg[/img]

Follow thread on XtremeSystems Forum:
3870 x2 review.

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NDA has been lifted today. The card is now officially released and reviews are open to the public.
Posted by Eastcoasthandle on XtremeSystems forum: 3870 X2 Reviews in alphabetical order
Very nice and handy list of links, thanks mate!

Reviews in alphabetical order

Anandtech
EVGA nForce 780i SLI
CAT: 8-451-2-080123a
Vista Ultimate 32-bit

Chile Hardware
Asus M3A32-MVP Deluxe AMD 9600 Black Edition
Catalyst 8.451.2.080123a
Vista Ultimate 32-bit

Computer Base
Striker Asus Extreme (Nvidia nForce 680i) main-board test
Cat 8-451-2-080123a
Windows x86 Vista Build 6000

Driver Heaven
Asus P5E3 Deluxe (X38)
Catalyst 8.451 230108
Vista Ultimate

Extreme Tech
Intel D975 XBX (Intel 975X)
Catalyst 8.2
Vista Ultimate

Firing Squad
ASUS P5E3 Deluxe (X38)
Cat 8.451.2_080123a-058649E
Vista 64-bit w/Service Pack 1 RC Refresh

Guru3d
nVIDIA nForce 680i SLI (eVGA)
8-451-2-080108a beta
Vista Business Edition

Hardware Canucks
Asus Blitz Extreme (P35)
Cat 8.451.2-080
Vista Ultimate x64

Hexus
MSI X48 Platinum (X48+ICH9R)
CATALYST 8.2 beta
Vista Business, 64-bit, Windows XP SP2 32-bit (X2 and GTX)

Hot Hardware
EVGA nForce 680i SLI
Cat ATI Catalyst Bets v8.451
Vista Ultimate

Legit Review
Gigabyte X38-DQ6
CATALYST 8.1 driver
Windows Vista Ultimate

MadBox PC
ASUS P5E (Intel X38)
Catalyst 8-451-2-080121a
Windows XP Service Pack 2 32bits

PCPOP
ASUS Maximus Formula (X38)
Cat 8.1 (no indication of updated drivers)
Vista Ultimate 32Bit version 6000

PC Prospective
EVGA nForce 680i Motherboard
AMD Catalyst R680 Beta
Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit

TechPowerUp
Gigabyte P35C-DS3R Intel P35
Catalyst 8.12 v8.451.2
Windows XP SP2

Tech Report
Gigabyte GA-X38-DQ6
Cat 8.451.2-080116a-057935E
Vista Ultimate x86 Edition

Tom's Hardware
Asus P5E3 Deluxe (X38)
Cat 8-451-2-080108a
XP??





Reviews by chipset

780i
Anandtech
uses a EVGA nForce 780i SLI
CAT: 8-451-2-080123a

680i
Computer Base
using Striker Asus Extreme (Nvidia nForce 680i) main-board test
Cat 8-451-2-080123a

Guru3d
using nVIDIA nForce 680i SLI (eVGA)
CAT: 8-451-2-080108a beta

Hot Hardware
using a EVGA nForce 680i SLI
Catalyst Bets v8.451

PC Prospective
EVGA nForce 680i Motherboard
AMD Catalyst R680 Beta


P35
Hardware Canucks
using Asus Blitz Extreme (P35)
Cat 8.451.2-080

TechPowerUp
using a Gigabyte P35C-DS3R Intel P35
Catalyst 8.12 v8.451.2


X38
Driver Heaven
using Asus P5E3 Deluxe (X38)

Firing Squad
using ASUS P5E3 Deluxe (X38)
Cat 8.451.2_080123a-058649E

Legit Review
Gigabyte X38-DQ6
CATALYST 8.1 driver

MadBox PC
ASUS P5E (Intel X38)
Catalyst 8-451-2-080121a

PCPOP
ASUS Maximus Formula (X38)
Cat 8.1 (no indication of updated drivers)

Tech Report
using Gigabyte GA-X38-DQ6
Cat 8.451.2-080116a-057935E

Tom's Hardware
using Asus P5E3 Deluxe (X38)
Cat 8-451-2-080108a


X48
Hexus
MSI X48 Platinum (X48+ICH9R)
CATALYST 8.2 beta


790FX
Chile Hardware
Asus M3A32-MVP Deluxe AMD 9600 Black Edition
Catalyst 8.451.2.080123a

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HD3870 X2 versus HD3870 512MB Crossfire on HardwareCanucks.com

Since the HD3870 X2 is essentially a pair of HD3870 cards with higher clock speeds and lower-speed GDDR3 memory, it is obvious that parallels will be drawn between the two. Since we had a pair of HD3870 512MB cards kicking around I decided to run a few quick tests.

About power consumption they make a wrong conclusion:

you will need at least a quality 600W power supply for a single card and a quality 850W or higher power supply for two of these cards.

right under their graph showing the total consumption on their testbed being 418 W. So it's not "at least a 600 W for one, and 850 for two." I would say at least a quality 500 W and 700 for two."
Anyway, my Coolermaster M850 should be comfortably more than enough.

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Very thorough review on the excellent ComputerBase.de Test: ATi Radeon HD 3870 X2 - AMDs ersehnter Griff nach den Sternen

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Now this is even more exciting than 1 3870X2: TWO of them makes X-fire (DirectX10 only), drivers still in the making... propably going to be a March release, maybe later.
On FPS Labs A Brief Look at CrossFireX Scaling - Introduction

The original launch date for AMD’s Radeon HD 3870 X2 was to be January23rd. AMD pushed the launch back to the 28th at the last minute, supposedly because the card did not scale well in several games, including Crysis. Following this logic, AMD is also delaying the official launch of CrossFireX because they have not been able to get the performance up to where they would like. Currently, AMD is saying that CrossFireX will launch in late Q1, meaning most likely sometime in March. The first evaluation version of the CrossFireX-enabling driver was released on Wednesday, the 30th of January, and somehow beyond all expectations, it made its way to us.

Please keep in mind that this article in no way should be considered an indication of final CrossFireX performance. As far as we know, the driver being used here is the very first to support CrossFireX, so over the course of the next month we fully expect scaling and performance in general to increase quite a bit with subsequent releases. The numbers presented in this article should only be interpreted as “a brief look at the state of scaling performance generated by AMD’s current beta CrossFireX driver”. Again, the numbers presented in this article are tentative -by no means are they or should they be interpreted as directly indicative of the performance that CrossFireX will deliver upon its official release.

Read more

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The Single-Decker Champ: ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 Graphics Card Review

Source

The Single-Decker Champ: ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 Graphics Card Review


Category: Video

by Alexey Stepin , Yaroslav Lyssenko, Anton Shilov

[ 02/18/2008 | 10:44 AM ]

ATI Radeon HD 3870 graphics card proved to be a really popular option for performance-mainstream market. But AMD wants to target the high-end using the same technology, but this time with two ATI RV670 chips. Let’s find out whether the new ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 is actually faster than its rivals from Nvidia camp.



Table of contents:

• Multi-GPU Technology: Improvements and Drawbacks of the Concept
• ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2: Work Principles
• Closer Look at ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2
  -PCB Design and Specifications
  -Cooling System
  -Noise, Temperature, Overclockability and Compatibility
• Testbed and Methods
• Performance in First-Person 3D Shooters
  -Battlefield 2142
  -BioShock
  -Call of Juarez
  -Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
  -Crysis
  -Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
  -S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
  -Unreal Tournament 3
• Performance in Third-Person 3D Shooters
  -Lost Planet: Extreme Condition
  -Tomb Raider: Legend
• Performance in RPG
  -Hellgate: London
  -Gothic 3
  -The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
• Performance in Realtime Strategy Games
  -Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts
  -Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars
  -World in Conflict
• Performance in Synthetic Benchmarks
  -Futuremark 3DMark05
  -Futuremark 3DMark06
• Conclusion

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PCPerspective: An Introduction to CrossFire X technology

Performance Scaling

Looking at the real meat of this initial CrossFireX preview, we have to see how impressed we are with the scaling ability that the software gurus at AMD have delivered. As Terry mentioned in our opening Q&A, the differences between titles that use DX9 and those that use DX10 is going to be noticeable in the interim moving forward. DX9 titles are easier to get working with three and four GPUs, at least according to the AMD team, and thus more DX9 titles will be supported with less work. DX10 games, though they are still somewhat rare, are another issue. Looking at Crysis and Bioshock, we can see how the fourth GPU isn't exactly utilized in the way the third GPU is; Terry has already explained the difficulty in this area.

Of the four games I tested for this preview, the only one that saw definite, noticeable performance benefits in-game comparing the three-GPU configuration to the four-GPU configuration was Call of Duty 4. Crysis also saw a slight gain, though mostly in the minimum frame rate which is pretty important to overall playability. Bioshock did see a nice jump when going from two GPUs to three GPUs and it looks like for now three GPUs could be a better price/performance solution that four.

We should again note that this is just a preview - we have many more games to test and AMD promises that this selection is just the middle ground of how well the CrossFireX software performs. We'll be doing more testing this week on the rest of our titles including Call of Juarez, Lost Planet, World in Conflict and others, so be sure to keep checking back for performance updates!

The CrossFireX as a Platform

One of the main benefits of CrossFireX, and standard CrossFire before it, is that it is a much more open solution that NVIDIA's SLI. CrossFireX will run on any PCIe based AMD chipsets including the new 790FX we used in our testing, Intel chipsets such as the X38 and X48 as long as they have enough PCIe slots for the GPUs you have, NVIDIA chipsets and even the recently released Intel Skulltrail platform. That gives the gamer a TON more options for their system - AMD or Intel processors, nearly any chipset or motherboard. NVIDIA just can't say that with SLI: it's their way or the highway, so to speak. CrossFireX will also allow for a lot more flexible system building and upgrading for enthusiasts. Say you already own an HD 3870 512MB card - now you can simply buy an HD 3870 X2 and throw it in your system, install the CFX driver and boom, you have three GPUs working for you instead of one. If you already have a CrossFire setup with 3850s or 3870s, you can still add to them if your motherboard has room to accommodate. The only thing that I will not recommend though is pairing up 512MB cards with 256MB cards as the performance penalty you pay for dropping your 512MB cards down to 256MB buffers will likely stimey a lot of your CrossFire gains.

Future Outlook

As I have said in my other editorial commentary on multi-GPU systems, the real question mark here will be in 6-12 months, when the RV670 is no longer the top dog architecture. Will AMD and its driver team continue to support CrossFireX on this platform, making improvements and fixes for new games? Multi-GPU performance is really all about the software, be in the game itself or the drivers from AMD or NVIDIA, and it takes a HUGE commitment from the GPU vendor to press on with the multi-GPU coding. NVIDIA has a relatively good history, with the obvious exception of the Quad SLI fiasco, and AMD/ATI's has been decent as well.

We'll be eagerly watching how BOTH companies adjust going forward. We've got our eye on you!!

Pricing and Availability

The great news about CrossFireX - all the hardware you need is available today. All of the GPUs, motherboard and processor (well, not at 2.6 GHz) we showed and tested are for sale right now. The only thing you are lacking is the driver which will be available by the middle of March I am told; probably before that. Pricing on the HD 3850 and HD 3870 has continued to impress and the RV670 has been the savior of AMD's GPU division since it was launched. The HD 3870 X2 is also available at its MSRP or below and has been since the day of its release.



Final (Initial) Thoughts

Our initial preview of AMD's CrossFireX technology is very positive. Even though the performance benefits of four GPUs is questionable based on the performance numbers we saw today, the flexibility that allows users to configure three GPUs in CrossFireX mode is much more appealing. In titles like Call of Duty 4, the benefits of four GPUs can really be seen but in other cases, three seems to do the job just as well. Either way though, AMD has opened up a whole new world of gaming options for enthusiasts by allowing such a diverse combination of hardware. The AMD team seems dedicated to this vision of support one, two, three and four GPUs in a single system and if they can keep up on the software end, we'll all have another reason to put AMD graphics cards in our systems.