Updated: AMD introduces ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Jan 28, 2008 at 10:05am
AMD has released the ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 graphics processor, which “expands the visual boundaries of personal computer entertainment well beyond the 1080P High Definition (HD) threshold” says Rick Bergman, senior vice president and general manager of the company’s Graphics Product Group . He adds that it’s the industry’s first graphics processor to break the teraflop (one trillion floating point operations per second) barrier.
The 55 nanometer process-based ATI Radeon 3870 X2, which has a suggested retail price of US$449, combines two ATI Radeon HD 3870s on a single graphics board, connected through integrated CrossFire technology. CrossFireX is the AMD multi-GPU technology designed to support up to four graphical processing units (GPUs). Software support to enable ATI CrossFireX is planned for later this quarter.
The Radeon 3870 X2 also supports Microsoft’s upcoming DirectX 10.1 technology, as well as Unified Video Decoder (UVD) and ATI Avivo HD for H.264 and VC-1 high definition content. Enhanced HDMI functionality is also offered via integrated HDCP and audio for HDMI video.
The ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 is the first enthusiast graphics processors to use TSMC’s 55nm process technology. The transition to 55nm has allowed for a 2X increase in performance-per-watt over the previous generation, Bergman says.
Unfortunately, it’s PC only “at this time,” Jon Carville of AMD told Macismum News.
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Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
