Crossfire Benchmarks

This section will provide an overview of single card vs. CrossFire performance. For CrossFire testing, two different brands of the ATI HD3870 were used; a MSI model and a HIS ICEQ model. The cards have slightly different speeds, the MSI runs at 800/1125 (GPU/Mem) and the HIS runs at 780/1126. The MSI card was installed in PCIE slot 1 and all tests were completed using Catalyst 8.5 drivers and Windows Vista Home Basic 64bit. Additionally, all CrossFire comparisons will be ran at overclocked CPU settings (4202Mhz/560Mhz 6-5-5-20).



3DMark Vantage Benchmark:

The first 3D benchmark test for CrossFire is quickly becoming the new standard among benchmarking enthusiasts, Futuremark 3DMark Vantage. The Performance preset will be used and all other settings remain at default to allow other users to compare their results.


Results: CrossFire results are really where the ASRock X48TurboTwins-WiFi shines with gain in Vantage 3DMarks of 2858 or an improvement of 63%.


3DMark 2006 Benchmark:

The second 3D benchmark test for CrossFire is among the most common in the enthusiast world, Futuremark 3DMark 2006. To be comparable to other users’ systems, all settings remain at default, including the resolution which is 1280x1024.


Results: Not quite the impact CrossFire had on Vantage, but close nonetheless. We see a 53% gain in 3DMarks when adding a second HD3870 and running the benchmark in CrossFire.


World in Conflict Benchmark:

For World in Conflict tests, resolution is set at 1680x1050, Detail is set to High, all other display options remain at default settings.


Results: In a gaming benchmark that simulates gaming situations, the performance gained when running CrossFire vs. a single card is outstanding. When adding a second HD3870, FPS improves 93%!