X-bit labs

The Single-Decker Champ: ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 Graphics Card Review (page 18)

Category: Video

by Alexey Stepin , Yaroslav Lyssenko, Anton Shilov

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

Futuremark 3DMark06

3DMark06 makes good use of the resources provided by the Radeon HD 3870 X2 right away, and the new graphics card leaves its opponents, including the GeForce 8800 GTX, far behind. The overall score of over 13,000 is obviously a record for a serial single graphics card working at its default frequencies.

As you could expect, the ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 has the biggest lead over the other cards in the SM3.0/HDR tests where it is 35% ahead of the GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB. Its results are not that impressive in the SM2.0 group and it probably wins due to the second test. Let’s see if this supposition is correct.

Yes, the Radeon HD 3870 X2 is slightly behind the Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB in the first test, which represents a more complex version of the first gaming test from 3DMark05. But in the second test the new card goes ahead just like it did in 3DMark05.

The ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 is unrivalled in the SM3.0/HDR tests that abound in pixel shaders. It is 57% and 60% ahead of the fastest single-chip card in the first and second test, respectively. That’s quite predictable as the Radeon HD 3870 X2 has as many TMUs as Nvidia’s solutions but is far superior in computing power. So, it loses slightly in one test and triumphs in the other three. This agrees with the overall scores.