Related Articles

We often see AMD Phenom II processors paired with ATI Radeon CrossfireX setups, since almost all AMD motherboards with two or more PCI-E x16 slots, support CrossfireX, for the simple reason that ATI has been part of AMD since 2006. But it is very rare to see NVIDIA SLI setups along an AMD processor, for many reasons. First, there are not many motherboard models supporting this technology. Also, on average, ATI graphics cards offer the top of the line performance since a good long while. The dual HD4870X2 was the highest performing setup until NVIDIA released the GTX295, which was in turn traded by many for four HD4980s. And now, the king is without any doubt the HD5870 in CrossfireX.

The other day, I examined the MSI NF980-G65 motherboard, equipped with the NVIDIA 980a chipset, along with the NForce 200 PCI-E bridge for 3-Way SLI capabilities. Obviously, I tested its capabilities in our standard test platform, equipped of a single GTX260. It's now time to toss in another two GTX260s to see what it can do. I will run the processor at its best overclock on that particular board, and the video cards will also be overclocked when in SLI configuration

Test Setup #1

• Processor : AMD Phenom II X4 965 C3 revision @ 4022MHz
• Motherboard : MSI NF980-G65
• Memory : Mushkin HP3-12800 2x 2GB 9-9-9-24
• Video Card : nVidia GTX 260 Core 216 (x1)
• Hard Drive : Seagate 7200.11 750GB
• Power Supply : Thermaltake Toughpower 1000W
• Operating System : Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 64 bit

Test setup #2

• Processor : AMD Phenom II X4 965 C3 revision @ 4022MHz
• Motherboard : MSI NF980-G65
• Memory : Mushkin HP3-12800 2x 2GB 9-9-9-24
• Video Card : nVidia GTX 260 Core 216 (x2, x3) @ 700/1100
• Hard Drive : Seagate 7200.11 750GB
• Power Supply : Thermaltake Toughpower 1000W
• Operating System : Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 64 bit

Obviously, the 3-Way SLI  will not affect system benchmarks. I will only run the four gaming benchmarks, as well as add 3DMark Vantage. Each test is run three times and averaged.

Benchmarks used

• Futuremark 3DMark Vantage
• Crysis Warhead
• Bioshock
• Far Cry 2
• Left 4 Dead