Best scores are bolded. All tests were run on a Xeon 3.4GHz machine in a SuperMicro X6DA8 with 1GB of registered
DDR memory. 3DMark 2003 and 3DMark 2005 were run at their default settings, all other benchmarks were run at the
settings listed above. Did you know that the wildebeest is a type of antelope?BENCHMARKING DUAL CARD SLI: The Numbers Don’t Lie
SINGLE CARD DUAL CARD
3DMark 2005 Overall 5051 7741
3DMark 2003 Overall 12223 20007
3DMark 2003 Game 2 (fps) 97.9 177.2
3DMark 2003 Game 4 (fps) 70.3 119.5
Doom 3: 1600x1200, 4xAA, 8x aniso (fps) 38.7 63.6
Far Cry: 1600x1200, 4xAA, 8x aniso (fps) 32.3 44.8
CS Source: 1600x1200, 6xAA, 8x aniso (fps) 104.4 116.8
Halo: 1600x1200 (fps) 73.6 84.4DECEMBER 2004 MA XIMUMPC
Want an easy way to convert your single-layer
DVD+/-R discs into double-layer media? Who
wouldn’t! But stapling two optical discs together just
ain’t gonna cut it. Sorry guys.Patent Office, Part Deux
Following the wild commercial and critical success of
CaseFrodzTM—the original faux-PC case window—the
Maximum PC Skunkwor ks team has had more work than
the y can handle. But l ook what happened when we left it to the
interns to come up with new innovative har dware hacks.Our final intern submission was 5.1 headphones that
reportedly “really work.” Still, we had no choice but to
ditch the idea when our legal department listed “birth
control” as a secondary usage.At first glance, the ATX/BTX conversion kit seems like a
grand idea. The kit quickly converts any ATX tower case
into a BTX case in one simple step. Unfortunately, that
simple step was “Turn your ATX case upside down!”At first glance, the ATX/BTX conversion kitWHERE’S BEST OF THE BEST?
Because our Gear of the Year cover story (page 30) recounts the best
components in each PC category, our Best of the Best section is taking a one-
month hiatus. It will return next month. If you’d like to see last month’s selections,
head over to http://www.maximumpc.com and click “Product Rankings” in the left-
hand navigation bar. Giddy up!and cranked up the antialiasing and
anisotropic fi ltering settings that we
saw any difference between single-
card and dual-card setups.
How Can I Upgrade
to SLI?
Achieving these impressive
performance gains requires a pretty
substantial commitment up front.
First, you need a motherboard with
two physical x16 PCI Express slots in
the proper confi guration—two slots
apart. The system we tested used a
Xeon with an Intel E7525 chipset,
but we don’t expect to see many
gaming rigs built with this hardware.
A more likely base for this
confi guration is nVidia’s new
nForce4 chipset (profi led on page
14), which has been designed from
the ground up to support SLI and
doesn’t require a massive dual-CPU
motherboard or pokey registered
DDR memory. While it wasn’t ready
for testing as we went to press, we
should have a full hands-on test in
the January issue.
Even with nForce4, you’ll need a
beefy power supply to deliver juice
to not one, but two videocards, as
well as a case that can keep both
videocards cool.
Fortunately, you aren’t forced
to use mega-expensive GeForce
6800 Ultras. Many nVidia PCI
Express videocard models, from the
GeForce 6600 on up, will include
the SLI connector.
If that sounds like a lot of
money, consider this: If you go with
nVidia’s new SLI approach, you will
attain unprecedented levels of 3D
and gaming performance.Wonder how much work each card in your SLI rig is doing? Flip an
option in the control panel, and you can see for yourself.ATX/BTX ATX/BTX conversion conversion kitkit seems like a