Asus have officially unveiled their Trinity HD 3850.  Its a triple RV670 MXM core graphics card with 1.5GB's of memory branded as EAH 3850 TRINITY/3DHTI/1.5G.  The standard cooling method for this card is watercooling.

 

This is following on from our two previous articles here and here.  Check them out for a little history.

 

In the press release ASUS detail the specifications at 660MHz for the RV670 cores, each with 512MB of GDDR3 memory backing them up clocked at 850MHz (1700MHz) operating with a bus width of 256-bit.   As stated in the previous articles, the card sports four DVI ports.  Its also bundled with VGA & HDMI to DVI adapters so there wouldn't be any problems with getting your monitor / TV connected.

 

Again in the previous articles we mentioned that the cores aren't directly attached to the main PCB itself but rather on to smaller "daughter cards".  ASUS are calling the cards MXM modules and are stating that these modules are upgradeable.  This means you could upgrade the GPU's and memory without having to buy a whole new card so as to lower the cost.  Also mentioned is the fact that Trinity's cooling solution is set up so as the heatpipes are specially connected to the main board of the graphics card instead of the GPU's so if you chose to upgrade the MXM modules, you wouldn't have to mess about releasing the thermal module.  They go on to say that the stock cooling solution is capable of dealing with the increased heat load from upgrades to GPU and memory.

 

Also stated is that "the ASUS EAH3850 TRINITY/3DHTI/1.5G is able to elevate 3DMark06 scores from 4880 to 11662 – an astonishing 139% speed improvement when compared to the single-GPU solutions".  Only problem with that is they fail to state which single GPU solution it was measured against.  It would make sense for them to have taken the reading against a single core 3850 but again.. It doesn't say.

 

 

The only clue in the press release as to whether or not this will reach the shops is that they call it a concept model which gives the impression its staying that way.  Who knows though, what with the MXM module design, perhaps a 3870 version may hit the net sooner or later.

 

Click here for the full press release.

 

 

While the design is certainly a little different from what we're used to, is it practicle? Would this card be something you would consider putting in your rig if it ever hit the market?

 

Discuss in our forum.