MaximumPC 2008 04

(Dariusz) #1

onboard, one six-pin and one eight-pin, but only the
six-pin socket is needed for normal operation. If
you intend to overclock the board, you will need to
send power to both of them. In our tests, our 3870
X2 test system consumed about 170 watts at idle
and around 275 watts under load, compared to the
3870’s 117 watts at idle and 208 watts under load.
We periodically update the games we use for
videocard benchmarking, but we’ve stuck with the
Shader Model 3.0 tests in the artifi cial benchmark
3DMark06 as a means of providing continuity. The
results we’ve seen with the 3870 X2, however, indi-
cate that the benchmark has fi nally outlived its use-
fulness: The 2x performance boost it delivers there
doesn’t jibe with the frame rates we saw in actual


games. In fact, there was virtually no performance
scaling in Crysis at all with the 3870 X2 when com-
pared to a single Radeon 3870.
The 3870 X2 is a good solution, but it doesn’t
solve the fundamental problem with dual-, tri-,
and quad-GPU systems: Their performance doesn’t
scale with every game—including high-profi le
titles like Crysis that you’d buy these cards for in
the fi rst place.
—MICHAEL BROWN

You’ll need both the six-pin and eight-pin power connectors if you intend to overclock
a 3870 X2 board.

$450, http://www.msicomputer.com

MSI R3870 X2 T2DIG

TRUTH
Relatively quiet and power
efficient; offloads video-
decoding chores from the
host CPU.
CONSEQUENCES

8


Currently delivers no performance
scaling with the most demanding
game on the market today.

http://www.maximumpc.com | APR 08 | MAXIMUMPC 73

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