R680 Has Landed: ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2

Name: R680 Has Landed: ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 - Page 3
Brand: R680

by Marco Chiappetta — Monday, January 28, 2008, 12:00 AM EDT

In the days leading up to this launch, we were contacted by a number of ATI’s board partners and given information regarding their Radeon HD 3870 X2 offerings. The cards pictured below come from Asus and HIS.

Asus Has Two Radeon HD 3870 X2 Cards In The Works

We received word of two Radeon HD 3870 X2 cards Asus plans to release. One model is essentially a copy of ATI’s reference design with the same clock speeds and 1GB frame buffer. But Asus claims their card will ship with highly-overclockable .8ns RAM. The other Asus-made X2 features a custom cooler design and quad DVI outputs. Although the Radeon HD 3870 X2 is clearly designed for gamers, we can see Asus getting some attention from investment professionals and CAD workstation types that regularly use multi-monitor setups. We should also point out that both of Asus’ offerings will include a copy of the DX10 game Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts. You can expect full reviews of these cards in the near future.

The HIS Radeon HD 3870 X2

The HIS Radeon HD 3870 X2 is also based on ATI’s reference design, sans the large decal on the fan shroud. With this setup, it’s easy to see the dual-copper heatsinks affixed to the GPUs and the aluminum heatsinks fins in the center that covers the on-board PCI Express fan-out switch.

HIS includes a couple of noteworthy accessories with their Radeon HD 3870 X2 card. Along with a DVI to HDMI adapter, dual DVI to VGA adapters, a CrossFire bridge connector, and HD component output dongle, the card ships with a driver CD, a case badge, and a certificate for Valve’s Black Box gaming bundle, which is comprised of Half Life: Episode 2, Portal, and Team Fortress 2. Also included is a handy pen-screwdriver branded with a large HIS logo.

Tags: ATI, Radeon, HD, X2, LAN, Radeon HD, ATI Radeon, 680, and

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com