AMD is saying that the new Radeon HD 4870 X2 which was released today is the fastest single video card in the world today. Is that so? Let’s compare its performance to all other high-end video cards available today. Check it out.

As you can assume by its name, Radeon HD 4870 X2 is a video card with two Radeon HD 4870 GPUs. On X2 they work under the same clock rates as the regular HD 4870: 750 MHz for the graphics chip and 900 MHz for the memory. Both cards are based on GDDR5 memories, which are capable of transferring four data per clock cycle, thus the performance of the memory is if it was running at 3.6 GHz, achieving a 115.2 GB/s maximum theoretical transfer rate. Each GPU accesses 1 GB memory thru a 256-bit bus.

So basically the new Radeon HD 4870 X2 is two Radeon HD 4870 working in parallel under CrossFire mode in just a single card. Putting two of them in parallel would equal to four Radeon HD 4870 in CrossFire.

We will talk more about the differences between the Radeon HD 4870 X2 and other current high-end video cards, but before let’s take an in-depth look on the reviewed model from Sapphire.

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Figure 1: Sapphire HD 4870 X2.

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Figure 2: Sapphire HD 4870 X2.

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Figure 3: Sapphire HD 4870 X2.

This video card requires the installation of two auxiliary power connectors, one with 6 pins and another with 8 pins. The product comes with the necessary adaptors for you to convert standard peripheral power plugs into a 6-pin and an 8-pin power plugs if your power supply doesn’t provide them or if you are installing two cards in CrossFire and your power supply has only one or two auxiliary power cable for video cards.

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Figure 4: Auxiliary power plugs.