Sapphire Atomic HD 3870 X2 Video Card Review

Conclusions

We liked this video card a lot. Not only because this particular model from Sapphire comes with a liquid cooling solution pre-assembled, but also because of its good performance for its price point.

On 3DMark06, which simulates DirectX 9.0c (Shader 3.0) games, Atomic HD 3870 achieved a performance similar to GeForce 9800 GX2 and was a little bit faster than the new and expensive GeForce GTX 280 (5%-9%) when no image quality enhancements were enabled, but when we enabled them the reviewed video card was between 16% and 26% faster than GX2 and between 34% and 42% faster than GeForce GTX 280.

Atomic HD 3870 X2 also achieved a good performance on Quake 4, being between 6% and 17% faster than the new GeForce GTX 280 and between 29% and 98% faster than GeForce 9800 GX2 when image quality was set at “low.” Increasing image quality made Atomic HD 3870 X2 to achieve the same performance level as GeForce GTX 280, but the reviewed card continued to be faster than GX2 (between 9% and 87.33%).

Half-Life 2: Episode Two also showed some good results for Atomic HD 3870 X2, with this card achieving the same performance level as GeForce GTX 280 at 16850×1050 and 1920×1200 with no image quality settings enabled and around 16-17% faster than GeForce 9800 GX2 under the same tests. At 2560×1600 also with no image quality settings enabled it achieved the same performance level as GeForce 9800 GX2, but GeForce GTX 280 was 12% faster. Maxing out image quality settings made Atomic HD 3870 X2 to achieve the same performance level as GeForce 9800 GX2, except at 2560×1600, where the video card from Sapphire was 35% faster.

On Call of Duty 4 maxing out image quality settings GeForce 9800 GX2 was between 40% and 60% faster than Atomic HD 3870 X2. Here, however, the reviewed card was a little bit faster than GeForce 9800 GTX.

On Crysis with image quality set to “low” Atomic HD 3870 X2 was between 67% and 71% faster than GeForce 9800 GX2 and when we set image quality to “high” both cards achieved similar performance, but GeForce 9800 GTX was around 10% faster than the reviewed card.

Besides Call of Duty 4 Atomic HD 3870 X2 also took a beat from GeForce 9800 on the new 3DMark Vantage, which simulates DirectX 10 games. Here GX2 was between 22% and 36% faster. In this program, however, Sapphire Atomic HD 3870 X2 was between 31% and 53% faster than GeForce 9800 GTX.

After we prepared this review we got the word that this video card won’t reach the US retail market, as only 300 pieces were manufactured – bummer! But we decided to publish this review anyway because we think most readers wanted to see a comparison between Radeon HD 3870 X2 and its main competitors (GeForce 9800 GX2 and GeForce 9800 GTX) and the regular Radeon HD 3870.

If you are looking for a high-end video card and don’t want to sell a kidney to buy the new GeForce GTX 280, Radeon HD 3870 X2 is a great option, especially when you think it is cheaper than GeForce 9800 GX2 and that it could beat this card from NVIDIA on several scenarios. Against GeForce 9800 GTX the reviewed card is a no-brainer, even though it costs more. But, of course, if you have money to buy either GeForce 9800 GX2 or GeForce GTX 280 go for it.