VisionTek HD3870X2 Graphics Card
VisionTek Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB Overclocked Edition Graphics Card
The VisionTek HD 3870 X2 1GB Overclocked Edition Graphics Card is a great performing graphics card with the newest dual graphics processor unit on a single graphics card for optimum performance in a single graphics solution.
Ease of Use, Performance: 20/25, Look & Feel: 20/25,
Features 23/25, How much I enjoy 20/25
Total: 83/100
The VisionTek HD 3870 X2 Overclocked Edition is a great performing graphics card and can handle all the current games with ease and plenty of eye candy with its dual graphics processors on a single card. The HD 3870 X2 has plenty of features and the specifications that really matter are the two 3870 processors with 1 GB high speed GDDR3 memory.
The HD 3870 X2 delivers all the quality graphics you want in a very simple to install ATI solution with Crossfire being setup automatically for the dual processors. Setting the card up for two card use for me has been quite problematic though and I really feel this is due to the ATI CrossfireX drivers and not the video card.
The VisionTek HD 3870 X2 Overclocked Edition is a dual processor graphics card with all the bells and whistles you could want and plenty of gaming graphics horsepower. It is currently one of the top of the line graphics cards in the ATI lineup and has been going down in price since it was initially released. The card has some very good features:
1GB High Speed GDDR3 Memory
DirectX 10.1/ Shader Model 4.1 Support
PCI Express 2.0 Support
Up to 24x Anti–Aliasing
Built In HDMI and 5.1 Surround Audio
Resolution Support up to 2560 x 1600 depending on monitor
The HD 3870 X2 card is a four DVI output for connection of up to four monitors when not in 3D Crossfire gaming and an extra bonus with an S-Video output for five output connections. The separate monitors can be used when the computer is in regular mode using one of the graphics processors but not in CrossfireX mode.
This is simply how the card works and if you want to use all the monitor connections you have to simply go to the ATI control panel and disengage CrossfireX and the additional monitors will be available. You can independently adjust the sizes and refresh rates of the screens so you can have a great array of monitors available from this one card.
This is the first great thing about the card and there are others, mainly gaming, but I also had problems with it that I could not get over. I could not get the card installed with an additional card to make use of CrossfireX with three GPU’s so I could not test the multi processor capabilities with more than the two GPU’s.
This I really believe is due to the setup I have and the drivers and not the video card, I have seen on the internet how others have setup three and four graphics processors with relative ease. This new technology is still quite young and having it all work well and effortlessly is still something that will be in the future for some. CrossfireX with more than the two graphics processors does work and it has worked with the same motherboard that I tried it with, the Asus M2R32-MVP.
I think it is just my setup and the drivers and is something that I will continue to work on in the future but not with my current motherboard and such. I tried for a couple of weeks and had major problems with the motherboard and had to return the motherboard twice for repairs so I am giving up on the CrossfireX with three GPU’s.
Other than problems trying to get the VisionTek HD3870 X2 working in CrossfireX with another HD 3870 card the HD 3870 X2 did work just fine in my system with both the Asus M2R32-MVP motherboard and an ECS KA3-MVP motherboard. I used both motherboards and did benchmark testing and game frame rate testing but the motherboards had no relevant changes to testing. Both motherboards had almost exact test scores so I will only be giving one set of scores from the Asus motherboard tests.
I did benchmark tests using the 3DMark06 test from Futuremark as well as frame rate tests using Company of Heroes, Call of Duty 4, Unreal 3, Microsoft Flight Simulator and World in Conflict. I will compare my results with the results I received from the VisionTek HD 3870 video card I recently reviewed.
The tests were done with the following system:
Asus M2R32-MVP Motherboard, AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ CPU, 4 GB Crucial DDR2 PC800 RAM, Ultra Power X3 800 Watt PSU, Windows Vista 32 Bit OS and Seagate 250 GB 7200RPM HDD. The tests I ran are Futuremark 3DMark06 and frame rate tests in the following games: Company of Heroes, Call of Duty 4, Unreal Tournament 3, Microsoft Flight Simulator X and World in Conflict.