The Verdict
It's now November 2008 and we certainly reviewed a good number of the X2 cards already, and after each benchmark session I am still impressed. It really is extraordinary how much pixels this card can poop out with each second that passes. When the two GPUs work, they push performance to a new level. However, and I state this often though, I do stand by my original opinion though that it is inevitable you will run into some troubles with an X2.
A problem right now is that ATI uses game profiles in their drivers to enable and apply optimal settings for multi-GPU configurations, this also means that the driver needs to activate the second GPU for CrossfireX mode. That's all perfectly fine and normal but the downside is simple, if your driver does not have the new game profile, there will only be one GPU rendering your game. ATI will always be one step behind and they do not allow users to create their own profiles. So with new games that are not yet profiled in the driver, you'll miss out on half the performance and that sucks, until the new driver is released that is.
A good example of a game with issues is Far cry 2 with weird stutters, and Brother in Arms Hells highway where only one GPU kicks in. ATI needs to address this issue by implementing user-based profiles. E.g. if a game is not yet supported, you at the very least can make your own profile.
Typically a second negative for the X2 is heat, this one we can eliminate though. Normally each GPU reaches roughly 85 Degrees C (185 degrees F) pretty easily. By itself not a an issue, but you now have two GPUs dumping that heat and as you'll learn, that's a lot of heat for the card to dispose outside that PC. That's an issue you won't have to deal with the Revolution 700. The cooling is pretty extraordinary. But when you think about the fact that you need to donate an additional PCIe/PCI slot for it ... that's just a lot. My advise here would be to go with water-cooling, really.
Right, I'm done with the dissatisfaction as that's not what the product is about .. the GPUs are responsible for an incredible amount of horsepower. The AIBs combine that with a massive 1GB per GPU framebuffer which makes the product way more future proof and then there's the gaming experience. Good gawd man .. it's just beautiful to observe what kind of horsepower you have under the hood.
A good example is STALKER Clear Sky. 2560x1600 in DX10 enhanced full dynamic light mode produces an average frame rate of roughly 40 FPS. Now I dare you to enable these settings as well and try it out, only then you'll understand the brute force approach this card has.
Absolutely lovely is all the connectivity you get with the card. Whatever your connection requires, this card has on-board. Btw - if you have dual DVI based monitor setup, Palit did include a HDMI to DVI converter. So there are no worries about that.
So let's close this review, due to it's sheer size the Palit Revolution 700 definitely will not be everybody's cup of tea and for that reason alone this conclusion as a bit of a mixed bag really. But heck, I mean .. of John Rambo would have to carry around a graphics card instead of a gun, this would be it :) If you can live with the bulky size then you'll adore the better temperatures, fantastic performance and fairly low noise level it produces. The one thing we like to see here at Guru3D is innovation and product differentiation, and Palit certainly exceeded themselves with this product. Much appreciated.
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