ATI, graphics product group of Advanced Micro Devices, on Monday announced the its first graphics card in over a year that has suggested price of $449 and that is aimed at hardcore gamers. The new board carries two graphics processing units (GPU) and will compete with Nvidia’s GeForce 8800 Ultra while waiting for a more powerful rival: dual-chip Nvidia GeForce 9800 GX2.
“PC gaming enthusiasts demand the ultimate in performance and scalability for their HD gaming experience and the ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 sets the standard by which all should be compared in this segment. With this launch we reaffirm our commitment to enthusiast performance leadership and send a clear message that the ATI Radeon 3870 X2 is the new gold standard of the PC gaming world,” said Rick Bergman, senior vice president and general manager of graphics product group at AMD.
The ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 graphics card is based on two ATI RV670 graphics chips and features 640 stream processing engines operating at 825MHz and 1GB of GDDR3 1.80GHz memory in total. Since all multi-GPU technologies rely on drivers to boost their performance, not all gaming applications will get performance advantage out of two or four chips (when two Radeon HD 3870 X2 are installed into one system).
When combined with ATI PowerPlay technology, the ATI Radeon 3870 X2 delivers “exceptional” idle power efficiency with the ability to dynamically raise or lower GPU power depending on the usage scenario, AMD said.
Like all the latest ATI Radeon HD 3000-series graphics cards, ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 board supports DirectX 10.1 feature-set, PCI Express 2.0 as well as second generation UVD unified video decoding engine along with improved Avivo HD post-processing engine that now supports high-definition video upscaling to 2560x1440 resolution.
“We’re pleased to see our newest DirectX 10 technology brought to market so soon with the introduction of AMD’s latest enthusiast hardware. One of the greatest advantages of PC gaming is the rapid pace at which the experiences evolve and improve. ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 delivers on the promise of DirectX 10 gaming with significantly improved visuals and enhanced performance,” said Kevin Unangst, senior global director of Games for Windows at Microsoft.
The ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 launches with broad availability and ecosystem support from AMD’s add-in-board (AIB) and systems integrators (SI) partners. AIB partners building boards based on the ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 include Asustek Computer, Ask, Club3D, Diamond Multimedia, HIS, ITC, Jetway, MicroStar International, Sapphire, Triplex, Tul and Visiontek. Systems integrators launching the new board include ABS, Alienware, Canada Computers, CyberPower, Falcon-Northwest, IBuyPower, Maingear, Systemax and Velocity Micro.
Comments currently:
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Discussion started: 01/29/08 12:01:15 PM
Latest comment: 01/30/08 05:49:52 PM
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I wish that nVIDIA follow the trend of ATI pricing with their upcomming 9800 GX2 and put their ego aside this time. It will be stupid to position this comming card at 500+ while two separated G92 cores would cost less than that with their recommended MSRP.
HD 3870 X2 beats 8800 GTX big time with much more lower price, nVIDIA could sell gold if they followed the same road of lower prices but I'm dead sure that big green will follow their own road of arrogance and 9800 GX2 will be priced at current 8800 GTX prices or even higher, maybe Ultra price.
Why would you sell 50 when you could have sold 500 with no damage on your side at all ??!!
nVIDIA fan here wishes the best for the whole industry.
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Posted by: @DoUL
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Date: 01/29/08 12:01:16 PM]
+ expand thread (6 answers)
- collapse thread
You are wrong nvidia should keep high price to show the superiority of nvidia card
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Posted by: mr bin bin
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Date: 01/29/08 07:12:36 PM]
"You are wrong nvidia should keep high price to show the superiority of nvidia card "
So just becaus seomthing its good you sugest the ask more money for it.
Most ppl want to get stuff cheaper, not you it seems.
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Posted by: Eddi
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Date: 01/30/08 01:26:02 AM]
Good, but:
The X2 3870 also costs about the same of two 3870.
The X2 and GX2 is to be able to use SLI/Crossfire on non SLI/Crossfire motherboards, so the previous point goes away.
Ati did a mistake not marketing it as 3970 instead of 3870 X2, because:
-3870 X2 is actually clocked 50Mhz higher over the 3870 775 vs 825.
-3870 X2 is using DDR3 memory like the 3850 not DDR4 like the 3870.
So the 3870 X2 name come up from?
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Posted by: Joker
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Date: 01/30/08 07:39:23 AM]
"-3870 X2 is actually clocked 50Mhz higher over the 3870 775 vs 825.
-3870 X2 is using DDR3 memory like the 3850 not DDR4 like the 3870."
So half of the specs (chip clocks) could result in 3890 X2, the other half (GDDR3) in 3850 X2.
Just do some simple maths:
(3890 X2 + 3850 X2) / 2 = 3870 X2 ^^
;-)
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Posted by: daFlox
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Date: 01/30/08 09:16:26 AM]
The first digit in the model number marks the generation of the card, while the second declares what chip from that generation is being used, so 3850, 3870 and 3870 X2 all start with 38. And since technically and performance wise X2 is fairly equivalent to 3870 crossfire, 3870 X2 makes perfect sense.
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Posted by: Ivan
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Date: 01/30/08 09:27:35 AM]
"-3870 X2 is using DDR3 memory like the 3850 not DDR4 like the 3870."
not in a few weeks :-)
http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?option=com_content&ta sk=view&id=5447&Itemid=1
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Posted by: aka_evil_e
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Date: 01/30/08 05:49:52 PM]
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