AMD's Dual GPU Monster, The Radeon HD 3870 X2

MojoKid writes "AMD officially launched their new high-end flagship graphics card today and this one has a pair of graphics processors on a single PCB. The Radeon HD 3870 X2 was codenamed R680 throughout its development. Although that codename implies the card is powered by a new GPU, it is not. The Radeon HD 3870 X2 is instead powered by a pair of RV670 GPUs linked together on a single PCB by a PCI Express fan-out switch. In essence, the Radeon HD 3870 X2 is "CrossFire on a card" but with a small boost in clock speed for each GPU as well. As the benchmarks and testing show, the Radeon HD 3870 X2 is one of the fastest single cards around right now. NVIDIA is rumored to be readying a dual GPU single card beast as well."

But does it run Linux?

[Ed Avis]

No mention from the article summary of whether this is supported by ATI's recent decision to release driver source code. If you buy this card can you use it with free software?

(Extra points if anyone pedantically takes the subject line and suggests targetting gcc to run the Linux kernel on your GPU... but you know what I mean...)

Does it come with...

[Walles]

... specs or open source drivers?

I haven't heard anything about any specs for 3d operations being released from AMD. I know they were talking about it, but what happened then? Did they release anything while I wasn't looking?

Re:This just in: New technology faster than old.

[Kamots]

Interesting thing is what happens when you stop looking at synthetic benchmarks... and start looking at real gameplay.

Take a read through hardocp's review [hardocp.com] for an example.

As to why AMD released? Well, my understanding is that NVidia is looking to release thier own 2-GPU card (9800 GX2) in Feb/March. Given the benchmarks of the current cards, I can't see the 3870 X2 holding up well... so... beat 'em to market. Although when you factor price in, I'd imagine it'll still be competitive; just not anywhere near the fastest.

What I'm waiting to see come out from AMD is the R700 cards... especially if it convinces nvidia to finally release thier true next-gen cards as well (not merely the continued tweaking/shrinking of the G80 architecture). Then we can all have something to look forward to :)

Anyone remember . . .

[TheScorpion420]

Anyone remember the ATI Rage Fury MAXX [amd.com]? I've still got one in use. It was a monster in its day. Dual Rage 128 Pro GPU's and 64MB of RAM. But for some reason the way that they jury rigged them on one board didn't work properly in XP, so it only uses one. Oh well, still s nifty conversation piece.

Re:Does it come with...

[Kjella]

I haven't heard anything about any specs for 3d operations being released from AMD. I know they were talking about it, but what happened then? Did they release anything while I wasn't looking?

They released another 900 pages of 2D docs around Christmas, 2D/3D acceleration is still coming "soon" but given their current pace it'll take a while to get full 3D acceleration. So far my experience with the nVidia closed source drivers have been rock stable, I have some funny issues getting the second screen of my dual screen setup working but it never crashed on me.

Drivers are something for the here and now, they don't have any sort of long term implications like say what document format you use. The day ATI delivers, I can buy a new card and switch instantly. They can promise to release specs all they want, I'll promise to buy one when they do. ATI may find that promises are cheap both in the giving and the getting. I'm still afraid that all the good stuff will be stuck in the legal department forever.