Please keep in mind that this is a preview of the ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2, aka R700. The video cards we have for evaluation today come straight from AMD as engineering samples, the final retail version of this video card will have a newer BIOS than what we are using here today. Also, there will be a newer driver set ready when these video cards officially launch later this summer. That said, we think you will still be very pleasantly surprised by the performance evaluated today in this early hardware and software stage of the Radeon HD 4870 X2. So what is the Radeon HD 4870 X2 or also R700? The Radeon HD 4870 X2 is AMD's single video card solution for the high-end gaming enthusiast crowd. - HardOCP

AMD Radeon HD 4870 X2 (R700) Edition Card Preview

The Radeon HD 4870 X2 is poised to compete directly with NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 280 at a competitive price. Final pricing and specifications will be finalized at launch later this summer. The Radeon HD 4870 X2 is simply a video card with two Radeon HD 4870 GPU's on a single board. Therefore each GPU is operating in a CrossFire type of configuration, but hard wired on the board itself with a bridge chip. The new Radeon HD 4870 X2 uses a newer bridge chip that supports PCI Express 2.0 and AMD has also improved the bandwidth between the GPU's and has also beefed up the frame buffer with 1GB of GDDR5 memory per GPU.

The Radeon HD 4870 X2 uses a very large copper heatsink atop both GPU's. Air is pulled in from the fan and exhausted out the back of the video card. The Radeon HD 4870 X2 is also quite heavy, much heavier than a GeForce GTX 280. The Radeon HD 4870 X2 requires one 6-pin power connector and one 8-pin as well for proper operation. CrossFireX is supported via the single CrossFire bridge connector atop the video card. Comparing sizes, the Radeon HD 4870 X2 and GeForce GTX 280 are exactly the same length. We have two Radeon HD 4870 X2 samples so we can also give a preview of CrossFireX performance as well.

This preview has shown a very positive light on AMD's Radeon HD 4870 X2 card. Usually previews can go two ways, either it is going to perform really badly, or it is going to outperform our expectations. This was the latter, the ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 graphics card outperformed our initial expectations. Even in this preview state the hardware and drivers have a very solid feel to them. The CrossFireX experience was easy to setup and worked without any fuss, and was delivering some nice gaming visuals exspecially when running at high definition. We are excited about testing fully finalized retail hardware with newer drivers.

Our performance evaluation has shown spectacular performance already, and we are really excited as it can only get better from here on out. That also means that NVIDIA has some real competition with the Radeon HD 4870 X2 video edition, especially if it is offered at a competitive price. Gamers will certainly have more options for high-end gaming, and this is a good thing.