Double your pleasure

If the Radeon HD3870x2 looks like a huge card to you, then you would be right.  Measuring out at a full 10.5 inches long, this is the longest card we have ever had in the shop.  The reference cooler is red tinted acrylic with a 75mm turbine type cooling fan on one end.  You can see the two sets of copper convection fins underneath the acrylic.  Double GPUs means (almost) double muscle for pixel pushing but it also carries the curse of double heat.

  

Along the top edge you see some red painted convection rods.  These rods will help conduct some of the HD3870x2's heat away from the GPUs more immediately.  This is smart thinking as it doesn't take a rocket scientist to deduce that GPU #2 will be catching the warm air off of GPU #1 as it is blown through.  Anyone remember the old Harley Davidson in line V-Twin problems of old with the back cylinder not only getting minimal air flow but what air it did get was already hot off of the first cylinder?  The higher temperatures of the second GPU will be a limiting factor when it comes to pushing the card hard for extended sessions.

Here's a shot of the rear of the HD3870x2.  You see the 75mm turbine fan in more detail as well as the two power inputs.  ATi recommends a minimum 550w PSU for the HD3870x2 and a 750w PSU for a Crossfire twin card set up.  The card requires two 6-pin PCI-E power connections.  If you intend on using the Overdrive Catalyst driver feature to overclock the card, one 6-pin and one 8-pin PCI-E power connection will be necessary.  Notice how the power connectors are positioned.  At 10.5 inches long, putting them on the rear edge of the card is out of the question.  When we installed this card into our Zalman GT-1000 case we had less than half inch to spare.  Cable routing for other parts of the system immediately took on an entirely new level of difficulty.

Flipping the card over the fact that this is a dual GPU card hits you in full as you see the cooler mounting brackets.  The oversized aluminum brace serves two purposes.  First it supports the copper cooler's weight.  We never felt the need to weigh a video card until now but the Radeon HD3870x2 tips the scales at 1.03 kg.  That's just shy of two and a quarter pounds.  For comparison, the Inno3D GeForce 8800 GT iChill weighs 0.45 kg.  Secondly, it acts as a surface wide heatsink.  During testing we recorded the bracket's temperature at one point at 145 degrees Fahrenheit.

Native CrossfireX support post as you can see.  Post as in singular, no more dual posts for doubling your pleasure.  Actually in this case, doubling your pleasure with the HD3870x2 would really be quad-pleasure.

The Radeon HD3870x2 is a two slot VGA solution with twin DVI outputs and a D-Sub connector.  The upper section is the standard finger guard protecting the exhaust from the acrylic cooler channeling.  Most of the card's heat blows out here but not all.  As you recall our mentioning the cooler bracket and cooling rods mounted external to the air shroud.

Before we move on I want to give you an idea of scale.  Below is the HIS Radeon HD3870x2 sitting underneath a standard sized HIS Radeon HD3850 XTurbo. 

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Pg 1 - Introduction
Pg 2 - The Card
Pg 3 - Operation / Temperature / Test Bed
Pg 4 - Crysis / NFS: Pro Street
Pg 5 - STALKER / Image Quality / Overclocking
Pg 6 - Conclusion