Introduction

First seen at Computex this year, PowerColor has designed a unique HD 6870 card with the HD 6870 X2. It unites two Barts processor on a single graphics card running in a CrossFire configuration. This approach enables the PowerColor HD 6870 X2 to end up being classified as high-end graphics card, delivering performance catered to 2560x1600 resolutions or multi-screen setups.



Since the HD 6870 X2 is not an official AMD product, PowerColor could not rely on any AMD reference design as base for their card. This means that PowerColor had to come up with a solution on their own, for example they replaced the PLX/AMD PCI-Express bridge with a chip provided by Lucid. In terms of clock speeds the card follows the frequencies set out by the HD 6870 reference design - just with two GPUs crammed onto a single PCB.

First online listings for the PowerColor HD 6870 X2 suggest a quite high retail price of $520, in this review we'll see whether the card can justify that cost.

Packaging

Contents

You will receive:

• Graphics card
• Driver CD + Documentation
• CrossFire Bridge
• DVI to Analog VGA Adapter
• 2x PCIe Power Cable
• Mini-DisplayPort to DisplayPort Adapter
• Dirt 3 coupon

The Card

PowerColor is using their own dual fan heatsink design on the 6870 X2 which seems to have been designed exclusively for this card.


The card requires two slots in your system. Given the large width the two slots actually feel like single slot when holding the whole cards in your hands.


Display connectivity is two DVI ports, one full size HDMI port and two mini-DisplayPort outputs. AMD's display output logic is clearly superior to what NVIDIA has to offer at this time. Board partners are free to combine several TMDS links into any output configuration they want (dual-link DVI consuming two links) - and use them all at the same time.

An HDMI sound device is included in the GPU, too. It is HDMI 1.4a compatible which includes HD audio and support for Blu-ray 3D movies. The DisplayPort interface is DisplayPort 1.2 compliant which allows the use of a DisplayPort hub to connect multiple monitors, or daisy chain them together.


You may add more HD 6850/6870 cards to a CrossFire configuration with the HD 6870 X2. Thanks to the Lucid Hydra chip on the board it is also possible to combine this card with any other ATI or NVIDIA card, but this requires the Lucid Hydra drivers which are not working perfectly yet.


Pictured above are photos of the front and back, showing the disassembled board. High-res versions are also available (front, back). If you choose to use these images for voltmods etc, please include a link back to this site or let us post your article.