3870x2 1gb is here (r680)

[AllFoamNoBeer]

I go for performance not ascetics. not sure about you

I crave playability, not graphics.

Anything works for me.. even an X700. So please.

[Verzili]

I hate to be a downer on this graphics card but Pairing up video cores isnt really the best thing to do in my opinion, because games are optimised for single core for example my processor has 4 cores on most games bf2,hl2 etc only one core is used leaving the other 3 sitting there doing very little

Some games like crysis use 2 and some of the third core but thats only the tiny minority of games so its always preferrable to have one fast core than more slower cores

Voodoo and ATI paired two cores on one board lots back in the early 2000's but when nvidia showed up with faster single core graphics cards ATI turned back to single core graphics, whereas voodoo didnt and went bankrupt

On the good side ATI has a card that is the fastest for the first time since the 8800 series was released but the 9800gx2 is due for release so im almost certain it wont last for long

the big difference between a 3870x2 and a 9800x2 is ATI use the same pcb to join both cores together,so i would imagine all games will use both cores.(note i may have the technical term incorrect but my point is a true one)

where as the 9800x2 uses a sli bridge chip,witch can cause a few problems(7950gx2)

and i imagine two 3870x2 would scale better than a nvidia (note the nvidia may still be faster,but for price you want as much scalability as you can get for you buck)

[Flt. Sgt. Powderhound]

That thing could house a small family... it's huge!

[Verzili]

That thing could house a small family... it's huge!

true but its the same length as a 8800ultra yet it thiner and it has a extra gpu :)

and windows shows it as one card ,unlike the 9800x2 witch will use a sli bridge thus showing up as 2)