When AMD introduced the Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB card in January of this year it was an attempt to become competitive once again with NVIDIA's high-end graphics cards like the GeForce 8800 GTX and Ultra. It was a moderately successful, but of course the Radeon HD 3870 X2 required the power of two of AMD's Radeon HD 3870 GPU's and 1GB of total frame buffer to do it. Since then AMD hasn't released any new cards but NVIDIA has been actively getting back any ground they had lost in the various markets with the release of the GeForce 9600 GT, GeForce 9800 GTX and GX2. AMD's partners on the other hand appear to be trying to pick up the slack that AMD left dangling. - PC Perspective

ASUS Radeon HD 3850 X2 1GB Graphics Card Review

ASUS' goals for this card are pretty simple, create an AMD based graphics card that fits into the gap that exists between the Radeon HD 3870 512MB and the Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB in terms of both price and performance. Some creative engineering and product positioning aim to do just that. Taking a look at the new ASUS Extreme AH3850 X2 card you could be confused into thinking you were looking at another ASUS product that is nearly identical in appearance. The design is obviously identical though this time ASUS has ironed out the issues we saw before and you can actually buy this product too, what a novel idea!

The ASUS Radeon HD 3850 X2 card has a single CrossFire connection along the top of it to support adding one or two more graphics cards to your system and enabling CrossFireX. With this technology from AMD you can add in one or two more single GPU Radeon HD 3850 or Radeon HD 3870 cards for a total of three or four GPU's or you can add another dual-GPU Radeon HD 3850 X2 or Radeon HD 3870 X2 card for a total of four GPU's as well. And the ASUS Radeon HD 3850 X2 card requires both an 8-pin and 6-pin PCI Express power connector, just like the Radeon HD 3870 X2 edition graphics cards.

The ASUS Extreme AH3850 X2 1GB graphics card performs much better than expected and considering the cards we were comparing it to, and should easily find a home in many enthusiasts' PC's. When we compare the ASUS Radeon HD 3850 X2 1GB card to its neighbors from AMD's own line of GPU's, it rests between the higher performing Radeon HD 3870 X2 card and the lower performing Radeon HD 3870 512MB card. The only differences are the clock speeds of the GPU's and the on-board memory that give the Radeon HD 3870 X2 edition its higher positioning in AMD's product stack and ranking at this moment.

The ASUS Radeon HD 3850 X2 1GB turned out to be a surprisingly competent graphics card that augments the gaping hole between the Radeon HD 3870 X2 and the Radeon HD 3870 in the product stack. ASUS is the only card vendor currently selling this product design and its likely they will remain so as the life span of the RV670 creeps along. But with the aggressive pricing ASUS has put on the product the GeForce 9800 GTX from NVIDIA has a new, and very competent, competitor. If ASUS can get the word about this custom ASUS built Radeon HD 3850 X2 it might breathe new life into AMD's GPU's this spring.