Bjorn3D.com has gotten its hands on Radeon HD 4870 X2 engineering sample and they’ve put it through its paces to see just what this card is capable of. Since it’s still a sample, its power saving features were turned off, but even when enabled expect this card to consume quite a lot of power.

Just like with its HD3870 X2, which consists of two RV670 GPUs, AMD uses two RV770XT GPUs on one PCB and the GPUs communicate through the PLX chip. This PLX chip is model number PEX86BB-AA50BC and it’s supposed to be much better than the one found on HD3870X2 since it supports PCI Express 2.0.

During testing, HD 4870 X2 , among others, locked horns with HD 3870X2, HD 4850, 8800GT, overclocked Asus 9800GTX, GTX280, 9800GX2 and HIS HD4870. The card itself is quite large and powering it will require an 8-pin and a 6-pin connector.

The card performed really well, beating 9800GX2 in 3DMark Vantage at extreme settings and all the games, some by a hefty margin. Even more so, 1600x1200 resolution saw Radeon HD 4870 X2 beat the rest of the cards by as much as 50%. Initial testing shows that it can hold its own versus GTX280 and even beat it, but that will probably depend on the drivers. Although it’s still an engineering sample, it seems like ATI has a jewel on its hands, and we’re quite sure that Nvidia is aware of it.

You can find the full review here.