MetalX said:
Of course it does. It's a dual GPU card, and should be classified as a dual card solution.
Your right and wrong. A dual card solution would be two processors on two separate PCB's. The X2 is a dual processor solution on a single PCB. This ultimately makes it a single card solution and thus be classified as a single card not dual card. It just doesn't make sense to call it a dual card. You might as well call dual core CPU's two separate CPU's.
ALL the reviews I've seen to have also called this card a single card solution and is why its now the worlds fastest single card. Also this card has no indication that it uses crossfire to link both processors. And acts just like a single card.
Anandtech said:
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.
Also you got to remember that this card runs much cooler than a single 8800GT and HD3870. Consumes a fair bit less power than a GTX and Ultra while idle and only a tad more than the ultra at load (mainly due to the inferior architecture)., and has a lower price tag than that of the GTX and Ultra, whilst still providing anywhere from 5-15% performance increase.
MetalX said:
Thats why it beats every Nvidia card, because none of them are dual-GPU.
7900GX2, 7950GX2. nVidia has has dual processor solution for a long time. These are not classified as single card solutions though because it really does use two processors on two seperate PCB's linked together via SLI bridge. So when the 9800GX2 comes out it won't be compared to single card solutions like the X2, but dual card solutions.
Also the cost to make the 9800GX2 will be a fair bit more than that of the X2, so nVidia will have quite a bit of trouble pricing them without losing money on their side. Also idle consumption will be just like dual cards, where as the X2's idle is far better than 2xHD3870's in crossfire.
The fact is, is that the X2 is simply superior. AMD have done a very well job with this, and have taken the performance crown back after over a year. nVidia won't be able to beat it until their next gen cards come out, which I hear has been delayed. Not to mention AMD's next gen cards are also being prepared for release fairly soon.