Specifications
Thanks to its two GPUs at frequencies of 825 MHz, the Radeon HD 3870 X2 is the first graphic card to surpass a theoretical calculation power of 1 GFLOPS. On the other hand, compared to the Radeon HD 3870 its memory is set at a lower speed of 900 MHz instead of 1125 MHz. The fact that there is now two of everything allows doubling the memory bandwidth with the transition from 1 to 2 GPUs and gives the card this very high number. However, two Radeon HD 3870s in CrossFire have 25% more memory bandwidth.
Connect3D Radeon HD 3870 X2
Connect3D was the first partner to be able to supply us with its Radeon HD 3870 X2. As is generally the case for this type of product it’s identical to the reference card AMD provided us with :
The card is equipped with an imposing and heavy cooling system which explains the reinforced base on the underside. One of the GPU cooling blocs is in copper while the other is aluminum. Two 6 pin power connectors are required and there is an 8 pin conducive to the activation of Overdrive for overclocking via drivers.
Connect3D announces immediate availability at a price that should be around 399€ for a classic bundle which is limited to various power and TV cables as well as DVI to VGA and HDMI converters.
Power consumption and noise
We evaluated the power consumption of the different cards. Measurements were taken at the wall socket, in order to have the total power consumption of the power supply, in this case, an Enermax Galaxy 850W.
Use of the 55 nanometer process and PowerPlay in order to reduce consumption means the Radeon HD 3870 X2 doesn’t blow measurements (too much) off the counter. AMD told us that in multi-GPU mode, it was too complex to completely deactivate one of the GPUs in stand-by and they had to only settle for PowerPlay to reduce consumption. In the end, the Radeon HD 3870 X2 consumes less than a GeForce 8800 Ultra in stand-by but more in load.
While the higher consumption in load isn’t too logical given the power of this card, noise levels can be more of a problem for this type of product. In rest, the card is silent while in load it’s another story. The fan constantly goes from low to very high speeds which turns out to be very annoying and even incomprehensible that AMD would approve of such a solution on its high end. We will have to look towards other models other than this reference one and hope to find more acceptable sound levels.
