X-bit labs

The Single-Decker Champ: ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 Graphics Card Review (page 9)

Category: Video

by Alexey Stepin , Yaroslav Lyssenko, Anton Shilov

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

Performance in First-Person 3D Shooters

Battlefield 2142

This game doesn’t support display resolutions of 16:10 format, so we use a resolution of 1920x1440 pixels (4:3 format) instead of 1920x1200 for it.

It is neither a triumph nor a failure for the new card. The Radeon HD 3870 X2 copes with the load successfully being almost as fast as the GeForce 8800 GTX and 8800 GTS 512MB in terms of average performance. It delivers a somewhat lower minimum speed, probably due to the specifics of CrossFire technology, yet this speed is never lower than 40fps which is quite a comfortable level.

BioShock

BioShock doesn’t support FSAA when running in Windows Vista’s DirectX 10 environment. That’s why we benchmarked the cards without FSAA.

Radeon HD 3870 X2 performs brilliantly in this one of the most beautiful games of 2007. Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB suffered a dramatic defeat here. Its victory is especially impressive in 1920x1200, where the new ATI solution managed to get more than 50% ahead of the competitor. Excellent result proving everything we have said about the impressive potential of the two RV670 chips tandem.