AMD Radeon HD 4870 X2 ready very shortly

As you guys know AMD is preparing a dual-chip version of its Radeon HD 4870 card yet it'll be released within a matter of weeks and not somewhere late August, say board designers.

The 4870 X2 would be a direct sequel to the 3870 X2 and would once again graft two high-end graphics processors on to one card with a similarly doubled amount of memory; the 4870 edition would be the first home card to carry 2GB of total memory. Past cards have also been underclocked slightly from the single-chip version to avoid overheating.

The company itself also plans a relatively quick turnaround and will ship a reference version of the 4870 X2 under its ATI label in late July, or just a month after the 4870's debut; third-party manufacturers like ASUS and Sapphire will have access to the design in mid-August. AMD is believed to be setting the official price at $499 and will likely market it directly against the GeForce GTX 280, which will cost $499 next week as well, and is likely to be outperformed by the X2 card.

Radeon 4870 X2 PCB