Another day, another graphics card. And today it's the Radeon HD 3870 X2 from ASUS in all its dual GPU wielding power. ASUS haven't chosen to go down the route of a stock cooler, so it should be interesting to see what the card is capable of and what exactly they have done to make it stand out from the pack. We like the Radeon HD 3870 X2, and generally speaking it gets good gains at high resolutions in most applications. The single PCB design is leaps and bounds ahead of the original dual-GPU offering from NVIDIA. We've seen pictures of the Radeon HD 3870 X2 from ASUS before, but now it's our chance to get down and dirty with it, and see if it's worth the extra money. - TweakTown

ASUS Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB Graphics Card Review

With nothing too out of the ordinary for ASUS, we have that typical massive box that we're so used to seeing. The top of the card has the brand, in this case ASUS, while the bottom of the card has the model number along with the HDMI logo. Just above the model we have some of the main features of the card like 1GB of GDDR3 memory and four DVI ports. Above that we also see mention that the card has an extra GPU. The rest of the box is covered in a big Company of Heroes picture and makes note of the game being included inside. Turning the box over, we have some more information on the model itself.

Moving onto the card itself, the cooler isn't just a slight variation to the stock one, but a completely new design which carries with it two fans. A black shroud covers the whole card. If you look closely in between the fan fins you can see the copper piping and aluminum fins that help keep the card cool. The overall design of the cooler looks good and should prove to be efficient when it comes to cooling the multiple GPU's embedded to the card. While the cooler might be different, the PCB layout is what you would expect. Moving around the graphics card the back has two PCI Express power connectors.

We've been a big fan of the Radeon HD 3870 X2, really from the word go. It's always seemed that the technology AMD implement for their multi-GPU setups have always been better. They also learnt a lot from NVIDIA's GeForce 7950 GX2 which were really nothing short of a flop. While we don't have the NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GX2 in the graphs today, we know where it sits. It tends to come out consistently ahead of the AMD offering. The AMD offering however does have a lot going for it. While the GeForce 9800 GX2 starts closer to the $700 mark, the Radeon HD 3870 X2 manages to sit way back around the low $450 mark.

Also, if you want a Radeon HD 3870 X2 there are so many places that list them at a reasonable price. If you start looking into GX2's the prices quickly go north with the high $700 mark not being all that uncommon. The ASUS offering is all very typical, it comes with a full version game and a three year warranty. This does come at a cost, but to get yourself into an ASUS Radeon HD 3870 X2 you're still looking at under $530. Where the GeForce 9800 GX2 does shine over the Radeon HD 3870 X2 is in a Quad GPU configuration. In fact the Quad SLI technology is certainly more advanced then the offer from AMD.

We saw some good gains in Crysis when testing it, but the Radeon HD 3870 X2 in CrossFire really says nothing spectacular. With that said though, AMD are very good in the driver department and hopefully CrossFireX technology is something they choose to concentrate more and more on in the near future. The ASUS Radeon HD 3870 X2 with its extra connectors, healthy bundle and cooler make it stand out from the pack.