The first AMD dual-GPU, the HD3870X2 arrives
USUALLY, ON launch day, most if not all graphics cards of a new type are just rebadged reference units made either Nvidia or AMD. This time, with the HD3870X2 series, Asus went ahead of the pack with a custom 'improved' flavour right at the start.
Here you see two Asus dual-GPU EAH3870X2 cards, linked by a Crossfire cable. Look at some unique points:
First, they sit on a now-bared, supercooling-ready, Asus Z7S-WS board, which we exclusively unveiled to the world earlier this month. The dual-CPU, 8-core overclockable Xeon board is in its newest BIOS rev capable of supporting dual FSB2000 and therefore 4+ GHz twin quad-core Xeons.
The dual PCI-E x16 v2 ports are Crossfire-ready - in this case, it is CrossfireX on 4 GPUs. Add to it up to 24 GB quad-channel RAM and, we suppose, CPU and memory will never be a bottleneck to feed the four GPUs.
Bared board? Yeah, we're experimenting with far more powerful cooling stuff on it now: multi-head cryocooling sounds attractive for both CPUs and the North Bridge. Whether it will work, or something else will be on it - we're keeping all options open...
Secondly, count the DVI connectors. Four on each card this time, for a total of eight. That gives a quad-monitor CrossFire or eight-monitor multiview setup - each of these at up to 2560x1600. The first we know of at high-end 3-D cards.
Then, take a look at the custom graphic card cooling. Asus package has two fans compared to one on AMD reference cooler, as well as copper heatpipes going all the way across both GPUs, memory and VRMs. The cooling should allow a bit more overclock, especially since the card uses faster 0.8 ns GDDR3 parts - how about at least 850 MHz for GPU(s) and 2300 for memory?
We'd still prefer single-slot micro-channelled waterblock taking care of this to save slot space - maybe Vadim Computers up north in London has some soon...
Graphics aside, this is 2 TFLOPs of single-precision FP power on top of 100+ GFLOPs of double-precision FP from those two quad-core CPUs. Makes for some interesting GPGPU applications - how fast would the Russians crack those Vista passwords now?
Back to the reality: we're testing the duo on a variety of more 'down to earth "mobos, including the recently checked-out MSI X48 Platinum, as the drivers progress. Check out the results this week! ?
Share this:
Business Intelligence Software
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Enterprise Accounting Software
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
Enterprise Systems Management
Now if you add a physics card that machine might actually run Crysis with a decent frame rate.
The RAGE Fury MAXX was ATI's first dual-GPU card. I just thought I'd point that out.
Remind me again, what is the current market uptake of dual graphics? like 0.1%?
less??

Why exactly is Nvidia and former ATI so heavily invested in dual socket graphics?

Is it because they are taking/taken baby steps towards multi core GPUs & need some dosh and some test subjects?

What exactly is so great about having two extra noisy cards that suck more wattage than my vacum cleaner in a PC?

Which games actually require that?

Don't wanna sh^^ in anyones cornflakes but if you buy this crap, you're a sucker.
Its fairly simple really ... its just AMD/ATI trying to pee that bit higher up the wall than nvidia ...
"..Asus Z7S-WS board, which we exclusively unveiled to the world earlier this month.."

Unveiled where? Nothing turns up in a
search...
Name some games?
Company of heros
Supreme Commander
Crysis, and thats off the top of my head!

Why buy this card? besides it being the fastest card on the block, that may jsut allow someone on earth to play crysis "twimtbp'd", some people only buy a new machine every few years, so for them, getting a card seen by many as extreme is important, as inthree yearstime it will be truly struggling.

Also, most are still on 19" montiors,with the relatively low res that comes with that, but some are on much higher resolutions, so need much more power than normal. And where exactly do you think lower end gpu's come from. Mid and bottom rnge gpu's almost always are a direct division of their high end parts.

Sorry, i thought most of the above was obvious. There's clearly a complete sucker or two still around.
I have an 8800 GTS (old gen, 320MB) and it's not the graphics that hold that game up, it's the CPU power and FSB bandwidth (or lack of).
I bought myself a quad-core Q6600 and noticed a sharp uptake in framerate and playability in Supreme Commander - at 1280x1024 with all the trimmings.
Crysis, on the other hand, gained nothing much from the jump in CPU power. That bastard probably needs a top-end card from 2010 to run smooth with everything maxxed out.
But I refuse to go dual-GPU. The price is ridiculous, the power cost is twice horrendous and the gain is not all that remarkable given the constraints.
I also see no reason to go dual-GPU since all I have to do is wait a year and the next-gen does just as well if not better - and with less driver issues.
I put a lot of faith in Nvidia when they bought out 3Dfx and nabbed the makers of the original SLI, but I feel that Nvidia has not been up to the challenge.
The initial version of dual-GPU where simply a joke, and each new iteration of it still starts out with drivers that are slower than single-GPU configurations.
It's madness, I say. Madness.
Some people ask - why buy this card combo?

Answer: For the same reason you would buy a car that can do two or three times the speed limit:
a: Because you want it and its pure decadence, if you can afford it buy it.
b: because its an incredible piece of technology to showcase if you're a fan
c: Sometimes its so nice to have the best.
d: Won't have to worry that next weeks title won't run due to lack of power
e: It'll fetch a good price on Ebay when you are bored of it.
f: Because its AWESOME (or as they say in the west country : "tha's lush that is my babber".)

QED

....
Enjoy

Pete