After our initial launch article on the Radeon HD 3870x2, we decided to run a quick sanity check and make sure that our positive experience wasn't overly limited by the games we tested. We wanted to make sure that this card really acts like a single card as our first account seemed to indicate.

After a few more days with the card, playing with various features and alternate games that we didn't address in our first article, we've been able to draw a few more conclusions about the hardware. Our initial assessment certainly wasn't without merit. Again, we didn't have any compatibility or driver problems, and CrossFire was completely transparent. Not only are there no physical settings to worry about (like the 7950 GX2), but there were no driver settings to mess with either (unlike the NVIDIA solution). We didn't have to fiddle with anything, and it just worked.

Single cards aren’t just about gaming and physical hardware. We would also expect a single card to behave like a single card in all usage situations. To that end, we wanted to make sure that multi-monitor support was on par with a single card. In the past, multiGPU solutions have required that only one monitor be enabled in conjunction with multiGPU rendering. With no driver setting to toggle, does this mean no multi-monitor support or that one display would blank when CrossFire kicked on?

AMD has addressed these issues very well in this case. Games are fully multiGPU accelerated even when multiple monitors are enabled, thus no separate CrossFire switch and no display blanking.

Just to confirm, we hooked up a second monitor and turned it on while we played gears of war. Our framerates were on par with what we were seeing when only one monitor was enabled. In order to show you guys what it looks like, we ran it in a window to get this screenshot.

It is worth mentioning that running in a window did hurt framerate as compared to running the game full screen. AMD has pushed the fact that their new hardware is capable of fully accelerating windowed 3D based on how it manages clock speed with respect to work load, so we aren't quite sure why we are seeing this behavior. The important thing is that gamers no longer need to disable secondary monitors in order to play their games with a multiGPU solution.

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.