14 DAY TRIAL // Bad news for the hardware enthusiasts and for the drooling overclockers that kept counting for an early release of the fastest video card on Earth. Things got a little fishy at the manufacturer's headquarters and we got a nice delay, the Advanced Micro Devices style.
The bottom line is that the official release of the shiny Radeon HD 3870 X2 graphics card has been re-scheduled for January 28 (the initial launch date). Earlier this month, AMD announced that the video card would be officially unveiled on January the 23rd, but the company pushed forward the official unveiling for January the 28th.
The initial supposition is that the company wants to let the retail stores pile some serious quantities of video cards on their stock, in order not to run out of the precious Radeon HD 3870 X2. But, given the pretty significant price tag ($615.35), I strongly doubt that they will run out of stock anytime soon. Moreover, some of the oveclocking junkies out there might wait for the GeForce 9800 Gx2.
It would be just great if that was it, but I think there are some technical troubles that need adjusting before releasing it to the hungry pack of gamers. I have told you yesterday about the fact that the reference card is a dual-GPU version with two RV670 graphics cores. Both of the cores are cooled with two heatsinks and a single cooling fan on top of them.
The fan blows the air over the first RV670 graphics core, then the airflow "floods" the second GPU. When it gets on the latter, the air is already hot and cannot absorb all the residual heat, so it is likely that the second core won't be able to function at full capacity. If the suppositions are true, we might face yet another delay. But don't despair, Nvidia's 9800 Gx2 will come just in time!