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At first glance, the VisionTek HD 3870 almost looks like a HD2900XT -- unlike the other HD 3870's we've tested, the plastic enclosure of the dual-slot cooling solution encompasses almost the whole card.  A  21-vane fan dominates the right portion of the card, big enough to cause a bulge on the top of the card. The fan pushes air through a long aluminum heatsink, which looks roughly twice the size of the reference board heatsink. The heatsink is further assisted by a pair of U-shaped copper heat pipes that run vertically through the sinks.

Judging from the amount of air rushing out the rear of the card when in operation, the cooler does seem effective at pushing hot air where it should be: outside of your case. The cooling solution also covers the cards GDDR4 memory  well, which is nice to see.

Size-wise, the VisionTek HD 3870 is on the 'big' side of things, and compares in length to top-end cards such as the HD 2900 XT.

Below: A PowerColor HD 3850 PCS Xtreme, today's VisionTek HD 3870, and a MSI RX2600XT Platinum.

The clocks of the VisionTek HD 3870 are a bit above the standard/default HD 3870's speeds. While the standard HD 3870 is clocked at 777 for the core, and 1126 for the memory, the VisionTek HD 3870 comes in a bit higher at 800 / 1170. While 13 MHz isn't going to make or break any 16-hour straight gaming sessions you might get into to, its nice that VisionTek did give the clocks that boost without plastering their retail boxes with 'OC' stickers.

At the heart of the HD 3870 is 320 stream processors, 16 texture units and render output units, and the RV670 GPU, which is made using a 55 nanometre manufacturing process. This smaller nano-scale process translates into a lower power consumption relative to the majority of older GPU's. A 256-bit memory interface feeds the 512MB of GDDR4.

Standard for cards in this class, the VisionTek HD 3870 has two DVI outputs, so you can run multiple displays. As well, this card has built in HDMI video and 5.1 audio and ATI's Unified Video Decoder, which offloads the processing of digital HD video from HD-DVD and Blu-ray discs from the CPU. This video output can then be displayed at resolutions up to 2560x1600 (1080p+).

If you are looking to power this DirectX 10.1, PCI Express 2.0 video card, you'll need a standard PCIe power connector, and recommended 450 Watt or greater power supply.