While the standard 3870 uses 2.25GHz data rate GDDR4, the X2 runs its GDDR3 at a 1.8GHz data rate. Memory speed is reduced however the Radeon HD 3870 X2 uses slower, more available GDDR3 in order to keep board cost under control. A standard 3870 runs its GPU at 775MHz, while both GPUs on the X2 run at 825MHz. The more layers you have on a PCB the easier routing and ground/power isolation becomes, AMD says that this is the reason it is able to run the GPUs on the X2 faster than on the single GPU board. The Radeon HD 3870 X2 is built on a 12-layer PCB, compared to the 8-layer design used by the standard 3870. The 3870's board layout is far simpler (left) than the X2's (right) thanks to less stringent power requirements and lack of a bridge chip + 2nd GPU - Click to EnlargeĮach GPU has its own 512MB frame buffer, but the power delivery on the board has been reworked to deal with supplying two 3870 GPUs. Thanks to the point-to-point nature of the PCI Express interface, that's all you need for this elegant design to work. Two RV670 GPUs surround the PCIe bridge chip - Click to Enlarge Each GPU has 16 lanes going to it, and then the final 16 lanes head directly to the PCIe connector and out to the motherboard's chipset. On the board we've got two 3870 GPUs, separated by a 48-lane PCIe 1.1 bridge (no 2.0 support here guys). AMD is particularly proud of its PCB design which is admittedly quite compact despite featuring more than twice the silicon of a single Radeon HD 3870. The card is long, measuring 10.5" it's the same length as a GeForce 8800 GTX or Ultra. Despite the codename, the product name tells the entire story: the Radeon HD 3870 X2 is made up of two 3870s on a single card. These self-contained SLI/CrossFire graphics cards will work on anything however.ĪMD is the first out of the gates with the Radeon HD 3870 X2, based on what AMD is calling its R680 GPU. With few exceptions, you can't run SLI on anything other than a NVIDIA chipset and unless you're running an AMD or Intel chipset, you can't run CrossFire. These dual GPU designs are even more important today because of the SLI/CrossFire limitations that exist on various chipsets. The idea is simple: take two fast GPUs, put them together on a single card and sell them as a single faster video card.
#Amd radeon hd 3870 gpuboss Pc
Considering we have yet to achieve visual perfection in PC games, there's still a need for even faster hardware.Īt the end of last year both AMD and NVIDIA hinted at bringing back multi-GPU cards to help round out the high end.
The end of 2007 saw a slew of graphics cards released that brought GeForce 8800 GTX performance to the masses at lower price points, but nothing any faster. It's not a huge deal because the number of people buying > $399 graphics cards is limited, but before we've started the review AMD is already giving up ground to NVIDIA, which isn't a good sign."ĪMD has since released even more graphics cards, including the competitive Radeon HD 38, but it still lacked a high end offering. The real story is that AMD would lose money on a high end part if it wasn't competitive, which is why we feel that there's nothing more expensive than the 2900 XT. According to AMD, it loses money on high end parts which is why we won't see anything more expensive than the 2900 XT this time around. While we appreciate AMD's intent to keep prices in check, the justification is what we have an issue with. The Radeon HD 2900 XT is the highest end graphics card in the lineup and it's priced at $399. "In another unique move, there is no high end part in AMD's R600 lineup.
We discussed this in our original 2900 XT review: In a highly unexpected move, AMD indicated that it would not be introducing any higher end graphics cards. Last May, AMD introduced its much delayed Radeon HD 2900 XT at $399.
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