R680: Two Become One - ASUS EAH3870 X2 1GB review

A couple of weeks ago, while examining NVIDIA's GeForce 8800 GT performance in an SLI configuration, we tentatively labelled 2008 as the year of the multi-GPU configuration, and if ever there was a more timely hardware launch to back up that premise, this is it.

While ATI's RV670 architecture has won them back at least some ground in their price/performance war over NVIDIA, the Radeon HD 3870 still doesn't hold sufficient performance to allow for anything approaching a serious assault on the single graphics board performance crown.  Enter R680, aka the Radeon HD 3870 X2 - a rather confusingly codenamed part which is, in essence, two RV670 GPUs acting in a CrossFire configuration on a single graphics board.  Today, we take a look at ASUS' board based around this configuration, the EAH3870 X2 1GB.  Can this board bring the performance crown back to ATI, and how does it fare against two GeForce 8800 GT 512MB boards in a more traditional SLI multi-GPU configuration.  We'll be investigating all of this and more, so turn the page and let's get cracking.