Power Consumption & Temperatures
As a single card solution, the Radeon HD 3870 X2 used slightly less power than the GeForce 8800 GTX at idle, while requiring considerably more power when under load. In fact when stressed in Crysis the 3870 X2 used 23% more power than a GeForce 8800 GTX.
When compared to the Crossfire Radeon HD 3870 setup however, we found the 3870 X2 to use 9% less power. This is unlike other results we have seen online, but we can assure you we triple checked our measurements.
We were delighted to see the upgraded ASUS cooling solution to work this well, as the Extreme AH3870X2 managed to run slightly cooler than a single Radeon HD 3870 graphics card. Nevertheless a stress temperature result of 80 degrees is still far too high for our taste, when all that hot air is being circulated through the case. I guess we will have to wait for Arctic-Cooling to make an Accelero Xtreme for the Radeon HD 3870 X2 before we see better stress temps.