AMD Introduces Radeon HD 3870 X2

[phoronix]

Phoronix: AMD Introduces Radeon HD 3870 X2

Coming less than a week after the introduction of the Radeon HD 3400 and 3600 series, AMD has today introduced the ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 graphics card. The Radeon HD 3870 X2 combines two Radeon HD 3870 GPUs on a single PCB and are connected via CrossFire Technology...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=NjMwNw

[Luis]

On this review they say:

"Even more appealing is the fact that the 3870 X2 will work in all motherboards: CrossFire support is not required. In fact, during our testing it was very easy to forget that we were dealing with a multi-GPU board since we didn't run into any CrossFire scaling or driver issues."

Not sure if that means that it *will* work well in Linux, though. Maybe crossfire support in the drivers is needed. But still, that support will come soon, so I don't think this card should be so Linux unfriendly. We'll see...

[Thetargos]

Has anyone at AMD (knowing how tight lip they are) has said anything about an approximate timeframe for CrossFire support (rather than soon)?

[givemesugarr]

Has anyone at AMD (knowing how tight lip they are) has said anything about an approximate timeframe for CrossFire support (rather than soon)?

i don't remember anyone saying that it will be there soon.... but if amd has produced this kind of board and would make people pay it 500 bucks knowing that no linux user would use it, then amd has to review its market views. it would be stupid to cut out linux market from one board as this one, so i really think that either it should work fine without crossfire support in the driver or that support would be released in the near future.

[rbmorse]

Maybe Michael has the right idea, that the card will use only one core in Linux.

I could see this. While not a completely desirable situation, my current machine has an X1950XTX and dual-boots XP. The XTX is way overkill for anything I do on the Linux side, but is just about minimal kit for Microsoft's Flight Simulator so I could see some utility for a 3870 X2 even though I spend the vast majority of the time in front of the computer on Linux.

I didn't say it would be wise, just that I could see it.

[Compxpert]

Perhaps ATi/AMD will put Crossfire in the next release since the only bug afik is X-video not working. Would be nice if they fixed that too.

[Thetargos]

I'd hate it if this board turns out to become like the Voodoo 5 in Linux (the Voodoo 5 in Linux was actually a Voodoo 4 4500, as the second core was never used, no SLI support)

[Fixxer_Linux]

I guess, as they have a clear open source support, that they will push out soon a crossfire support on Linux, in order not to cut market shares on a new product just because of the lack of support.
That shouldn't be so complicated to port the Crossfire part on Linux from the Windows version

Or perhaps releasing the specs so that open-source RadeonHD can take it.

Ok, ok, I'm dreaming...

Anyway, the 3870 is still a good board, fast enough to play UT3 or ETQW on a 22" flat LCD.

[Michael]

I'd love seeing CrossFire support just like any of you, but it cannot be expected soon...

[Kano]

I would like to see unlocked SLI/Crossfire on any board. It feels a bit stupid when you are forced to buy a certain plattform when this is only a marketing trick. And as those dual gpu gfx cards usually do work why not 2 or more gfx cards?