Uploaded April 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Sponsor: ID-Cooling Frozn A720 Black on Amazon geni.us/VDnou4Y
A viewer sold us his rare Engineering Sample AMD ATi HD 4870 X2 (RV770 / RV700 codename GPUs) to give us a unique insight into a past era. The launch of this GPU marked an upset for NVIDIA, when AMD's pressure -- as widely reported by Anandtech and Tech Report of the time -- caused NVIDIA to drop prices; however, this also preceded the 2008 financial crisis, putting AMD in a tricky position so soon after its ATi acquisition. Although we struggled to get the engineering sample to fully function beyond booting, we used the opportunity to dismantle it, look at the hardware, and talk history.
Grab the GN Modmat we used in this tear-down! store.gamersnexus.net/products/large-modmat-gn15-anniversary
Watch our tear-down of the NVIDIA prototype 4090 Ti cooler: youtube.com/watch?v=lyliMCnrANI
The best way to support our work is through our store: store.gamersnexus.net
Like our content? Please consider becoming our Patron to support us: patreon.com/gamersnexus
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - The AMD HD 4870 X2 Engineering Sample
03:23 - History of the HD 4870 X2
10:03 - The Big Dual-GPU Challenge
13:33 - TEAR-DOWN and Overview
17:55 - PLX Chip and 2 GPUs
21:35 - Heatsink Disassembly
23:41 - Conclusion
** Please like, comment, and subscribe for more! **
Links to Amazon and Newegg are typically monetized on our channel (affiliate links) and may return a commission of sales to us from the retailer. This is unrelated to the product manufacturer. Any advertisements or sponsorships are disclosed within the video ("this video is brought to you by") and above the fold in the description. We do not ever produce paid content or "sponsored content" (meaning that the content is our idea and is not funded externally aside from whatever ad placement is in the beginning) and we do not ever charge manufacturers for coverage.
Follow us in these locations for more gaming and hardware updates:
t: twitter.com/gamersnexus
f: facebook.com/gamersnexus
w: gamersnexus.net
Our policies, processes, and ethics statements relating to review samples, advertising, travel, errors, and more are transparently and publicly available on this page: https://gamers.nexus/ethics-statements
Steve Burke: Host, Writing
Mike Gaglione: Camera
Tim Phetdara: Editing
Tannen Williams: Writing, Testing
Sponsor: ID-Cooling Frozn A720 Black on Amazon geni.us/VDnou4Y
A viewer sold us his rare Engineering Sample AMD ATi HD 4870 X2 (RV770 / RV700 codename GPUs) to give us a unique insight into a past era. The launch of this GPU marked an upset for NVIDIA, when AMD's pressure -- as widely reported by Anandtech and Tech Report of the time -- caused NVIDIA to drop prices; however, this also preceded the 2008 financial crisis, putting AMD in a tricky position so soon after its ATi acquisition. Although we struggled to get the engineering sample to fully function beyond booting, we used the opportunity to dismantle it, look at the hardware, and talk history.
Grab the GN Modmat we used in this tear-down! store.gamersnexus.net/products/large-modmat-gn15-anniversary
Watch our tear-down of the NVIDIA prototype 4090 Ti cooler: youtube.com/watch?v=lyliMCnrANI
The best way to support our work is through our store: store.gamersnexus.net
Like our content? Please consider becoming our Patron to support us: patreon.com/gamersnexus
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - The AMD HD 4870 X2 Engineering Sample
03:23 - History of the HD 4870 X2
10:03 - The Big Dual-GPU Challenge
13:33 - TEAR-DOWN and Overview
17:55 - PLX Chip and 2 GPUs
21:35 - Heatsink Disassembly
23:41 - Conclusion
** Please like, comment, and subscribe for more! **
Links to Amazon and Newegg are typically monetized on our channel (affiliate links) and may return a commission of sales to us from the retailer. This is unrelated to the product manufacturer. Any advertisements or sponsorships are disclosed within the video ("this video is brought to you by") and above the fold in the description. We do not ever produce paid content or "sponsored content" (meaning that the content is our idea and is not funded externally aside from whatever ad placement is in the beginning) and we do not ever charge manufacturers for coverage.
Follow us in these locations for more gaming and hardware updates:
t: twitter.com/gamersnexus
f: facebook.com/gamersnexus
w: gamersnexus.net
Our policies, processes, and ethics statements relating to review samples, advertising, travel, errors, and more are transparently and publicly available on this page: https://gamers.nexus/ethics-statements
Steve Burke: Host, Writing
Mike Gaglione: Camera
Tim Phetdara: Editing
Tannen Williams: Writing, Testing
