ASUS EAH3870 X2 1GB TOP Review

While they’re still best known for their high-end motherboards, over the years ASUS has produced some pretty outstanding graphics cards. ASUS was the first of the big card manufacturers to play both sides in the graphics world, ending the era of exclusive deals that locked card manufacturers to producing cards solely on GPUs from ATI or NVIDIA. In fact, their 9800 XT/TVD and 9600 XT/TVD were the first Radeon cards to ship with VIVO (video-in/video-out) support. Up to the debut of these cards, VIVO was a feature that was only found in the All-In-Wonder line of graphics cards from ATI. Now VIVO is a feature that can be found across the lineup of Radeon cards.

ASUS’ Smart Doctor software also brought features such as dynamic clock speed adjustment depending on workload. For instance, Smart Doctor could automatically overclock the card when a game is loaded, then revert back to stock speeds once you return to the Windows desktop. Smart Doctor also offered dynamic fan speed adjustment, varying RPMs based on workload or temperature. All of these features and more were found in Smart Doctor well ahead of programs like nTune and ATI Overdrive.




Over the years ASUS has produced quite a few high-end graphics cards that were pretty unique. Back during the GeForce 7800 GTX era, their Extreme N7800 GTX TOP set itself apart from other GeForce 7800 GTX cards thanks to its dual-slot cooler from Arctic Cooling. The card also shipped at higher clock speeds than other GeForce 7800 GTX cards. ASUS partnered with Arctic Cooling again to deliver the Extreme X1800XT TOP/2DHT. While the stock X1800 XT developed a reputation for being a loud graphics card, ASUS’ Extreme X1800 XT TOP ran cooler and quieter, all while running at speeds that were higher than any other Radeon X1800 XT card.


Now ASUS is back again with another unique Radeon board, this time utilizing the recently released Radeon HD 3870 X2 GPUs. Whereas the stock Radeon HD 3870 X2 board shipped with two DVIs and a single fan, the ASUS EAH3870 X2 1GB TOP features four DVIs and two cooling fans, and as a TopOverclockingPerformance card, ASUS’ latest 3870 X2
offering is overclocked by ASUS for added performance.

Let’s take a closer look at what ASUS has done with their EAH3870 X2 1GB TOP card!