3 MAXIMUMPC (^) | FEB (^08) | http://www.maximumpc.com
DIRECTX 10 GAME HD VIDEO DIGITAL PHOTO
SUBJECT 1 CROSSFIRE CROSSFIRE CROSSFIRE
SUBJECT 2 CROSSFIRE NO PREFERENCE CROSSFIRE
SUBJECT 3 SLI SLI NO PREFERENCE
SUBJECT 4 SLI NO PREFERENCE CROSSFIRE
SUBJECT 5 CROSSFIRE CROSSFIRE CROSSFIRE
SUBJECT 6 SLI CROSSFIRE SLI
SUBJECT 7 NO PREFERENCE CROSSFIRE SLI
SUBJECT 8 CROSSFIRE NO PREFERENCE NO PREFERENCE
SUBJECT 9 CROSSFIRE CROSSFIRE NO PREFERENCE
SUBJECT 10 CROSSFIRE SLI SLI
SUBJECT 11 CROSSFIRE CROSSFIRE CROSSFIRE
SUBJECT 12 SLI SLI SLI
SUBJECT 13 SLI SLI NO PREFERENCE
SUBJECT 14 SLI SLI CROSSFIRE
SUBJECT 15 CROSSFIRE CROSSFIRE NO PREFERENCE
CROSSFIRE SLI NO PREFERENCE
GAME PREFERENCES 8 6 1
HD VIDEO PREFERENCES 7 5 3
DIGITAL PHOTO PREFERENCES 6 4 5
TOTAL 21 15 9
The fi rst chart shows the sub-
jects’ responses for the DX10
game, the high-defi nition video
clip, and the high-res digital
photo. You can see whether
they consistently picked one
vendor over the other, or if
they preferred different GPUs
for different applications.
The second chart sums
up the total number of
responses for each video-
card and the total number of
no-preference responses in
each category. A quick glance
shows a slight overall prefer-
ence for CrossFire, but turn to
page 38 for a more detailed
analysis of the results.
A breakdown of our test
subjects’ preferences
when comparing content
on ATI CrossFire with
Nvidia SLI (control group
results not included)
We went to great lengths to avoid infl uenc-
ing our test subjects one way or the other.
We gave them minimal instructions, and we
made it clear they shouldn’t feel pressured to
choose A over B or vice versa.
Our fi rst subject, a female art director,
immediately pointed to monitor A, which hap-
pened to be the CrossFire rig (we randomly
reversed the test setup between subjects) and
said, “That one looks sharper. Monitor B looks
a little fuzzy, and I think monitor A has bet-
ter color quality.” Moving on to the HD DVD
test, this same subject pointed to monitor B,
the SLI rig, and said “The video on monitor B
seems more saturated, but the color in moni-
tor A looks more accurate.” This same subject
voted for CrossFire in the portrait test, making
a clean sweep for AMD.
Many of our other subjects had a more
diffi cult time choosing a favorite. A male edi-
tor at one of our gaming magazines preferred
Nvidia’s gaming visuals, saying, “The tank
looked as though it had more detail, but the
difference is very small.” He picked AMD,
however, when it came to evaluating the
digital photo: “The color temperature is very
subtly higher,” he said, “and the highlights in
the model’s hair look more golden on monitor
B (the SLI rig).” When it came to the HD video
test, he expressed no preference at all.
IN THEIR OWN WORDS
Unvarnished opinions from our test subjects
MAXIMUMPC
CHALLENGE
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THE RESULTS
RAW RESULTS
CUMULATIVE SCORES
dariusz
(Dariusz)
#1