3DMark05

The features test on the 3DMark05 test suite highlights what SLI is capable of in extremely video dependent situations. In most cases we're at about a 90% increase of a single 6800GT.

Aquamark 3

Despite being fairly shader heavy, at stock resolutions, Aquamark 3 is almost CPU bound on the 6800 SLI setup. Everyone else has a much sharper rate of decrease. In Aquamark we're seeing the 6800GT SLI rig being able to handle 8xS AA / 16AF at faster framerates than the single 6800GT with just 4xAA / 8xAF.

Half-Life 2 Video Stress Test

At 1024, it looks like we are running into CPU bounds with the HL2 Video Stress Test though the X850 does manage to distance itself slightly compared to the 6800GT and the SLI setup. SLI flexes its muscles at 1280 and beyond.

* Note that the custom setting is not a direct comparison between the NVIDIA and ATI card as the antialiasing setting is different - 8xS mode on the NVIDIA and 6xAA mode on the ATI.