AMD Radeon HD 3870 X2 Sanity Check

More Performance Testing

We also tested a few more games in order to try and make sure that CrossFire actually accelerated other applications than the ones we tested initially. We can confirm from experience a few more titles that work with this solution. Specifically, we saw performance improvements in Gears of War and Microsoft Flight Similator X.

We also tested Universe at War (an RTS game) and Guitar Hero III (a music game). Guitar Hero III is capped at 60 fps, and we can at least say that frame rate wasn't hurt by CrossFire: both solutions stayed pegged at 60fps the entire time we played at 2560x1600.

Universe at war didn't show any CrossFire improvement. Not all titles will benefit from the 3870x2 over a single GPU version of the card, as is to be expected. But no matter how you slice it CrossFire looks a lot better than it used to especially in the form of the 3870x2.

Final Words

This is a step beyond what NVIDIA offers with single card multiGPU 7950 GX2 cards in form factor and ease of use. While any multiGPU solution will still not be able to improve performance across the board, more game makers are aware of the need to consider this problem now than in years past.

We have also often favored NVIDIA's multiGPU solutions because ease of use, driver support, and compatibility were head and feet above AMD's CrossFire. This launch not only shows that AMD is committed to their multiGPU business, but that we are finally seeing AMD put multiGPU pressure on NVIDIA. This raises the bar on the way multiGPU systems should work and NVIDIA had better be paying attention.

Our hope is that AMD will continue to push forward to make sure that new games coming out will have full CrossFire support. AMD has really come through on this one, and we certainly hope they can keep up their commitment to delivering quality multiGPU drivers and hardware going forward.