What’s a race without at least two competitors? We’ve all heard of the current state of videocard affairs being called a one-horse race, and for good reason. Because even if a race has two competitors, if one lags too far behind, it turns into exactly that – and makes things incomparably dull. Thankfully, both of the competitors – namely Nvidia and ATI – are making a good showing. ATI is showing true pride as the underdog, giving as much as it takes in the sales war. The latest salvo coming from the red corner is the  3870 X2.

                                             Sure reminds me of Daimos' Twin Bazooka errr... chest.

This release is significant in many ways. News items and internet talk about a month back spoke of how ATI has basically given up on challenging Nvidia in the high end of the market – meaning the GTX and the Ultra 8800s. While this may undoubtedly be true, this will hardly have a large effect on actual sales, which is dominated by the low to mid level range of products from both companies. Yet a more subtle advantage was lost when ATI refused to match up to the high – end Nvidia offerings – ATI was basically losing in the “rep” department – the general idea being that if you’re losing in the high-end, then the rest of your products mustn’t be so good either.

                                             This is a solid piece of kit - impressive even at first blush.

This is of course untrue – yet the stigma of ATI being the underdog remains. This affects sales in an indirect but significant way. Enter the 3870 X2. This product consists of two R670 chips on one PCB joined together by a PCI-E 1.1 48 lane bridge chip. In other words it is Crossfire setup using two 3870’s on one card. Designed to take on Nvidia’s best, the HD 3870 may not be the most elegant solution especially considering the patchwork support for Crossfire in most games, but the sheer chutzpah and tech-overflow in the product guarantees that some of the “high-end flavor” should be returned to ATI soon enough. We are fortunate to be able to test a good example of the product in the form of the GeCube HD 3870 X2.

                                             The unconventional 75mm fan is somewhat noisy.

This videocard differs from the reference design in three obvious ways: one, the PCB is shorter than stock and thus may fit in some cramped cases; two, the heatsink and fan combination is obviously not stock; and three, four DVI connectors at the rear. The heatsink design features a double fan setup with a lot of copper below it – four heatpipes with their attendant heatsinks attached to RAM and cores, plus the bridge chip. Being copper, the card had a nice heft to it, added to the bling factor of a dual-fan, all copper cooler.

                                             Peeking out just under the heatsink is the bridge chip.

The four DVI connectors initially had me all excited – four monitor setups right out of the box! We were in for a little bit of disappointment though – as only two connectors will work while in Crossfire mode. Crossfire can be disabled in the Catalyst front panel, but game performance will of course be affected. So quad-monitor gaming is out, but four monitors for regular productivity tasks is still viable. With a card like this, that’s just… disappointing. Perhaps a driver update will take care of this shortcoming soon.

                                             Two 6-pin power connectors - make sure you have a good PSU!

We conducted some initial benchmarks on this videocard – we have no default-clocked 3870s on hand, but a quick browse through our fellow HWZ website in Singapore gave us some numbers to compare to. The 25MHz Core bump – from 825MHZ to 850MHZ, and the memory clock bump from 900 to 980MHz (dual-pumped) results in some decent gains (100 to 250 points in 1280 x 1024 and 1600 x 1200 resolutions) in 3DMark ‘06 that may or may not translate to better performance in games.

                                             You can bootup from the two on the left; Crossfire must be disabled for all four DVI to work.

Since Crossfire isn’t as widespread as SLI when it comes to game support, compatibility is a concern for this card – some games will definitely benefit more from this card’s dual-chip nature than others. 3DMark ’06 is fortunately a Crossfire – friendly benchmark – a single 3870 scores 6371 3DMark points at 1600 x 1200 with 4x AA / 8x AF while the HD 3870 X2 scores 10883 3DMark points. If this kind of performance increase holds up in other games, this card will definitely become a full ATI comeback – as long as Nvidia doesn’t yet release the top-of-the-line G92/94 based cards.

                                             So far, this is the only card with four native DVI connectors, so I can't complain too much.

As it stands, THE GeCube HD 3870 X2 has another advantage to its name – with the continuing reluctance of Intel and Nvidia to work together to enable SLI to work on Intel-based chipsets like the X38 / X48, this high-end ATI presents to the enthusiast a very viable alternative to changing motherboards and/or sacrificing total performance. In the end this product simply gives the consumer more choice – in the fact of its release, but also because it continues the tradition of an exciting two-horse race that’s neck-to-neck, rather than a race where the victor has long been decided and all the bets have been called off.

Watch out for an in-depth review in a future HWM issue. More pictures to follow.

                                             Looking like a pair of circular radiators, this two-slot solution is all-copper and looks great.

                                             There is only a single Crossfire finger. Perhaps Octo-GPU setups are still a ways off?

                                             The two cores and the bridge chip can be seen in this shot. Memory modules are left uncovered, which is a point of concern.

                                             Bundled extras are nothing to shout home about. It includes a game though - Call of Juarez.

                                             Look here before you leap to purchase.