14 DAY TRIAL // During the launching of the new CrossFire platform at Computex in Taipei, ATI also made a demonstration of the new solution's performances. Crossfire set a new record by scoring 15498 points in the 3D Mark benchmark test.
So far, the indisputable leader of the 3D Mark top has been the combination of two Geforce 6800 GT cards linked via the SLI bridge. But back then, ATI's technology had not been launched and the old 14623 result obtained by two overclocked 6800 GT video cards is already forgotten.
ATI announces that the new CrossFire configuration built on Radeon X850 XT video cards is far better than two GeForce 6800 Ultra video cards on SLI, the proof being the 1,000 point difference in 3D Mark.
ATI has not made any comments on the frequencies of the video cards or of the Athlon 64 FX processor mounted on the RADEON XPRESS 200 CrossFire Edition (RD480) motherboard, but it seems that the system has been overclocked, this measure being necessary in order for these results to be obtained. Another omitted detail is the version of the Catalyst drivers installed on the system.
The ex no.1 of the 3DMark 2005 top was the combo of two ASUS GeForce 6800 Ultra cards linked in SLI mode and taken from their regular frequency to 627/1404 MHz; the processor, Athlon FX 55, was also overclocked.
The results obtained by ATI's solution are also confirmed by a more objective test which indicates a 10.637 score, obtained using two Radeon X850XT PE, the only difference being that the cards have been tested at their normal frequencies.