Preview links are listed below:
From TechReport: HD 4870 X2, The Graphics Card 'Beast'
Preview Links:
AnandTech: http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3354&p=1
DriverHeaven: http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews.php ... 8&pageid=1
HardOCP: http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.h ... VzaWFzdA==
TechReport: http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/15105
From AnandTech. HD 4870 X2 dominates over everything else in Oblivion.
From TechReport. HD 4870 X2 outperforming even a GTX 280s in SLI. I think nVIDIA is crying right now.
From the preview benchmarks, only one word is required to sum it up: WOW. The benchmarks confirms it all: the HD 4870 X2 completely dethrones the GeForce GTX 280 as the fastest, single graphics card in existence. What even more surprising is that the HD 4870 X2 outperforms 2 x HD 4870 in Crossfire and 2 x 9800 GTX in SLI in most setups! It even defeats some GTX 260 and 280 SLI setups in certain scenarios as well! There are also even reports that the 'micro-stuttering' problem that plagued other multi-GPU cards (i.e 7950 GX2, 9800 GX2, HD 3870 X2, Crossfire, SLI) has been solved with the HD 4870 X2.
However, there are some concerns with the card. First, is the price. The planned MSRP for the HD 4870 X2 is supposedly $499 - $549 USD. This is no where near as expensive that the original price for the GeForce GTX 280, but it is still quite a bit of money. Second, the card consumes an insane amount of power, even more so than a GTX 280 alone or a 4850 CrossFire or 9800 GTX+ SLI setup. Third, is the heat and noise. According to TechReport, the card seems to operate at an insane temp, 91 C, and the noise level seems to be on par with a GTX 280 SLI setup.
With the HD 4870 X2, I think it's safe to say that ATI is back, after playing second place to nVIDIA for the past few years. ATI has shocked gaming/video card community this summer, with the release of the HD 4850 and the HD 4870, and now with the HD 4870 X2. No one outside of ATI expected this kind of level of performance, not even nVIDIA.
PROS:
- Fastest single, graphics card.
- Outperforms the GeForce GTX 280 and the Radeon HD4870 by a good margin.
- Outperforms HD 4870 / 4850 Crossfire, 9800 GTX / 8800 GTX SLI setups in most games. Occasionally defeats GTX 280 / 260 SLI setups as well.
- 2 GB of DDR5 RAM, 1 GB dedicated to each HD4870 X2 core.
- Micro-stuttering issue plaguing multi-GPU card seems to be resolved with HD 4870 X2.
- ~2.4 terascale of computing power!
CONS:
- Expensive, likely to be $499 - $549 USD.
- Very power hungry card, close to what two HD 4870 in CF consume.
- Emits a large amount of heat; can be as high as 91 C!
- Can produce a lot of noise during load.
- Not a Crysis-killer, either. (God, that game is demanding..!)
- Not available in retail until mid August.
For those looking for something cheaper than the HD 4870 X2, but something that is faster than the GTX 280 & HD 4870, AMD/ATI is preparing the HD 4850 X2 for a September launch.