Not too long ago the idea of a multi-GPU graphics card seemed somehow taboo and brought about a lot of negative connotations with it. The GeForce 7950 GX2 was the first in the modern NVIDIA era and some board partners went in other multi-GPU directions until the Radeon HD 3870 X2 was released. We took the Radeon HD 3870 X2 card as an answer to NVIDIA's high-end cards because the company didn't have a single GPU that could compete with the competitions parts on its own, something of we need answer product. Today's preview of the Radeon HD 4870 X2 from AMD proves that this time AMD was planning ahead with NVIDIA somehow being scared of the dual-GPU version. - PC Perspective

AMD Radeon HD 4870 X2 1GB Graphics Card Preview

The Radeon HD 4870 X2 card is AMD's answer to NVIDIA's flagship GeForce GTX 280 card in terms of pricing and placement. Even though NVIDIA recently dropped a bomb and lowered the price of the GeForce GTX 280 from $649 to $499, the estimated pricing we have seen for AMD's card is in the above $500 range and will likely fall on the lower end of that open ended range now. Isn't competition a wonderful thing? The card continues in the tradition of long PCB's, matching the size of the Radeon HD 3870 X2 as well as the GeForce 9800 GX2 design. The cooler for the Radeon HD 4870 X2 is of course a two slot design.

While note completely enclosed like NVIDIA dual-GPU cards, the back of the card has a thing metal heatsink plate that, coupled with the all-black look of the PCB, is actually pretty cool looking. Though the Radeon HD 4870 X2 is much heavier, it about the same size as the GeForce 9800 GX2 card. There is just a single CrossFire connector on the Radeon HD 4870 X2 card that will allow you to connect either one or two single GPU Radeon HD 4870 cards or one more Radeon HD 4870 X2 for quad CrossFireX support. Unfortunately we only got a single card for this preview so testing quad was out of the question for now.

Unfortunately, AMD was forced to return to the 8-pin and 6-pin PCI Express power connection configuration for this dual-GPU design. Ripping the heatsink off the card reveals the three logic chips that make all this magic happen. We have got two RV770 GPU's and a PLX PCI Express bridge chip which means that it is technically not a PCI Express 2.0 card. The memory chips are Hynix GDDR5 modules rated at 4.0Gbps. While it is hard to get a complete outlook of AMD's new Radeon HD 4870 X2 1GB card with three games and some 3DMark Vantage numbers, our initial outlook for it is very, very good.

If those idle power numbers can be improved upon with the updated PowerPlay BIOS as AMD claims, and it will be very difficult to find weaknesses in AMD's new flagship product. The only exception might be the scalability concerns we mentioned above and that's up to AMD's software team to keep up with the PC titles as they arrive. Of course final pricing and availability are the real keys to a successful launch but as it stands now, if the Radeon HD 4870 X2 1GB were selling for around $500 today it would have our full recommendation.