Sapphire HD 3870 X2 Review

Page 11 - Conclusion

As we already stated multiple core solutions ain't standard for a good reason, though they have been around for a decade. HD 3870 X2 is more of a desperate attempt from AMD to snatch back the crown for the fastest card. Definitely unsuccessful. The good old G80 as in 8800 Ultra looks to be the king of for few more months, and on the other hand even if we overlook the results of HD 3870 X2 tests (being not that bad after all), we must not forget that they are dependent on the drivers. The success of the card in the following years depends solely on the AMD's preparedness for each new expected game and at some point when the cars production ceases, the interest in it fades and the CrossFire architecture has it's changes and improvements, then the Catalyst in question will be gone! Even though the tests were with modern games, expected to have full support, the recent Catalyst 8.2 drivers were all but adequate in the situation! The problems we ran into with games as Crysis and Lost Planet: Extreme Condition, do tell us the card is unreliable, so for the common user the wonderful alternative in the face of GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB G92 would be better - even though a tad slower in some games it will not give you the heebie jeebies when you try to run a brand new game with it.

A chain is as strong as its weakest link and for HD 3870 X2 this tells a lot. Its PCB is 12 layer instead of the 8 for HD 3870, just in order to be capable to deal with all the extra wiring, thus the load is more and the chance of failure is increased. Concentrating our view on Sapphire's model, even though referent he is distinguishing itself with high quality, common for the brand and still coming at a very reasonable price in Bulgaria. Reach bundle, as well as quality items as expected for such a card. If you are determined to obtain a Radeon card the HD 3870 X2 from this brand should be in your list.

Another thing is that Radeon HD 3870 X2 could always be faster than two CrossFire consisting of two HD 3870. Despite the fact that its price is a bit higher than the one of two separate cards - the lower power consumption is a factor just as the lower noise and having a free slot or two. And in the end let's not forget that this is the only way to have a CrossFireX with 4 cores - when drivers become available of course. This is a great choice for every 3DMark "player", since the potential of such benchmarks is huge!

After all the trouble we dive the just 6.5/10 to AMD HD 3870 X2 - for it'd overall good performance and the good chances to improve for the better with each Catalyst version.

Many thanks to our partners from Solytrade, which made the review possible.

Author: Dimitar Dinchev a.k.a Veseliq

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