It is not much time since announcing a new family of graphics cards Radeon HD3000 and Radeon HD3850 and Radeon HD3870, and today, AMD announced another video card. Not very, it is, however, and a new, as the two built on the already well-familiar RV670 chips. Ask why the company needed to produce AMD twin video card, because it is complex and certainly much sunlight, let alone about energy.

The answer is simple: the cause of the emergence of "double" was the graphics card: the absence of a competing with the flagship company NVIDIA solutions; desire to get more profit in a short period of time. Indeed, if AMD will issue on the basis of a future flagship graphics processing R700 earlier time, he might be "crude", and plans for the conquest of the market may be in jeopardy. Release same video cards based on two chip company AMD kills two rabbits at once. First, a video card, which can effectively resist the "masthead" solutions from NVIDIA. Secondly, AMD appears the company more time to finalize the future of graphics processing R700. Such a move is a proven, it has ceased to develop when NVIDIA GeForce 7 line of graphics cards, and the GeForce 8 was not ready yet, it promptly released GeForce 7950 GX2 at the two GPU G71 and thus friendly terms saturated market for high-performance solution.

So, apparently Radeon HD3870 X2 is a temporary solution, which must compete with the senior NVIDIA graphics cards up to the time of appearance and R700 chip cards based on it. So, a new graphics card Radeon HD3870 X2 positioned as a competitor GeForce 8800 Ultra. Well, we must check, but in the meantime, learn about the novelty closer.
We have proved an engineering sample card AMD, so no packages, integration and so we have not, and could not be otherwise. However, the main thing is videocard. As you can see, visually map very similar to the Radeon HD2900XT but confusion seriously. The reason for this is not just a pair of eyes Ruby, welcoming us and sharp-sighted look as if hinting that the two processors (based on the number of eyes?), But also markedly increased the length of fees and accordingly, the cooling system.

Does videocard fit in "normal" building? Indeed, such a problem could arise, but there must pay tribute to AMD, since the new Radeon HD3870 came out slightly shorter competing GeForce 8800 Ultra, including GeForce 8800GTX. Therefore, in order to install new items required by AMD usual spacious corpus, nothing supernatural.
Inevitable consequence of the existence of two video became twice as many memory chips, half of which is located in the rear and sides covered with a metal plate-radiator. Only 16 memory chips (to 8, from the usual video card Radeon HD3870/HD3850).
It is worth the existence of only one CrossFire connector instead of the usual two. This was a consequence of the application of technology within CrossFire graphics card, that is, one of the connectors used to connect between a two GPU. Well, let us explain the video card and see what is hidden under the cooling system.

PEX 8547 chip is a piece of hardware switchboard lines 48 PCI Express specification versions with support for PCI Express Base Specification, r1.1, and specially designed for high-speed switching class point-to-point lines with a high bandwidth. PEX 8547 switch is made in a compact 676 - contact PBGA corps, has dimensions of 37.5 x 37.5 mm. Typical power consumption PEX 8547 is not more than 4.9 W, with a latency switching lines "x16 at x16" not more than 110 ns. Of the 48 lines of PCI Express-supported chip-switch 32 lines in architecture card Radeon HD3870 X2 allocated to connect with graphic chips, and the remaining 16 - with a slot PCI-Express x16. As can be seen from the figure, GPU can communicate with each other directly, transiting chip switch, and the system bus. The regime of a full exchange, the exchange is possible in two directions simultaneously.

Name: 25898.jpg Views: 108 Size: 15.5 KB

Thus, the idea for AMD engineers architecture applied in the design card Radeon HD3870 X2, the ability to provide performance gains of up to 1.7 times compared with a map on a single chip HD3870. At the same time, deployment of all components of the system CrossFire on the same motherboard should be more economical energy consumption and optimum refrigeration components.
Cooling system Radeon HD3870 X2 consists of an aluminium shell fan, familiar to us Radeon HD2900XT, two radiators to cool the GPU, copper and aluminum; red plastic cap. Radiators for GPU are on the loose aluminum frame that enables design of the complex "relief" graphics card and avoid twisting.

Aluminium radiator located closer to the fan, which is not surprising, since it gives warm copper option, and it required a more cold air flow, or more. The reason that AMD has used copper instead of aluminum, is simple. Video of the already dire, and whether there copper radiator, it could cause damage or graphics card slot on the motherboard.