One area where the two GPUs on R680 do differ from the standard RV670 architecture is in their core and memory clocks. Compared to the 775MHz assigned to a reference Radeon HD 3870, the GPUs on the X2 see their core clock speed boosted up to 825MHz. Conversely, memory clocks go in the opposite direction, with the price of this board being kept down by replacing the 1125MHz clocked GDDR4 RAM seen previously with 1GB of GDDR3 memory (512MB of which is attached to each GPU) clocked at just 900MHz.

With regard to power consumption, the Radeon HD 3870 X2's peak power draw is expected to be just shy of 200 Watts, with its 'light gaming' power management mode rated at drawing 'just' 110 Watts.