The video card we will be looking at today, the VisionTek Radeon HD 3870 X2 Over-Clocked edition represents the pinnacle of ATI's Radeon HD 3000 series of video cards. It seems like only a short time ago that the Radeon HD 3870 came out, and battled against NVIDIA's GeForce 8800 GT for dominance of the gaming card market. But now the entire Radeon HD 3000 line-up has been filled out. The line-up starts with the Radeon HD 3450 at low-end, takes a stop at the mid-range with Radeon HD 3650, hits high speed at the Radeon HD 3870. And while the Radeon HD 4000 series will certainly come eventually, right now the Radeon HD 3870 X2 is one of the fastest video cards you can find. - NeoSeeker

VisionTek Radeon HD 3870 X2 OC Video Card Review

The only single card solution that has a fighting chance of out-maneuvering the Radeon HD 3870 X2 would be NVIDIA's dual-GPU behemoth, the GeForce 9800 GX2. And when the Radeon HD 3870 X2 is overclocked we can certainly expect to see some stratosphere level performance. Recently we checked out the AUS Extreme AH3850 X2, and it tured out to be a real winner. It will be interesting to see how the VisionTek Radeon HD 3870 X2 OC edition stacks up to the Radeon HD 3850 X2, and a pair of overclocking Radeon HD 3870's running in a CrossFire setup. Will the VisionTek overclock be enough to push it over the top?

The most noteworthy thing about the VisionTek Radeon HD 3870 X2 is the card's far from reference board design cooler. While the reference Radeon HD 3870 X2's have a solid bank of aluminum fins paired to a single fan for their cooling, the VisionTek Radeon HD 3870 X2 OC edition instead sports a cooler design that is reminiscent of the popular Thermaltake DuOrb cooler. The cooler looks like it should be easily capable of supporting some high clocks. One other benefit of this cooler is its somewhat smaller size in comparison to a standard cooler found on a Radeon HD 3870 X2 and could be benificial for a CrossFire setup.

The VisionTek Radeon HD 3870 X2 comes in a box that is relatively very small. The packaging is the size of shoe box which is always good to save trees in the pursuit of gaming. The VisionTek Radeon HD 3870 X2 Over-Clocked edition has a lot of things going for it. It has a nice cooler on it, the card is compact for a dual-GPU card, and it has a healthy out of the box overclock as well. VisionTek also offers a lifetime warranty for the card, and has a technical support line available should you run into any problems. When it comes to performance, overall the VisionTek Radeon HD 3870 X2 OC version did well, but not amazing.

This video card is selling for around $450 right now which is about $30 more than VisionTek's reference design card. While this card will definitely keep your games all flying at a fast clip, this card does face some healthy competition. On one hand, for those looking for the ultimate in performance the much more expensive GeForce 9800 GX2 delivers a unmatched performance. We suppose you could argue that you could pick up a Radeon HD 3870 X2 and add a third Radeon HD 3870 card to the mix in your second PCI Express slot, but we have found that this third card does not offer huge performance gains.

Less expensive cards than the Radeon HD 3870 X2, such as the GeForce 9800 GTX in this mix often gave the Radeon HD 3870 X2 a run for the money. And it is true that the Radeon HD 3870 X2 Over-Clocked edition often came ahead in these match ups, but the GeForce 9800 GTX cards are selling for noticeable lower price, so the value just isn't as good as could be hoped. But the VisionTek Radeon HD 3870 X2 OC version does have some real advantages over other video cards, and overall, is definitely a capable performer.