For in game benchmarking I used FRAPS to record the minimum,
maximum and average FPS during two minutes of actual game play,
although not as exact as a pre recorded demo it gives a more accurate
representation of real world use. I don't know about everyone
else, but I actually play games, I don't watch recorded demos
for fun. All testing with both Crossfire enabled and disabled
was done with 4xAA/16xAF enabled and all other graphics settings
set to "high" Display resolution was set to 1280 x 1024
which is the max resolution for my LCD.
First up is Half-Life 2: episode 1, without a doubt one of the
nicest looking games out
A 10 FPS increase is nothing to sneeze at, and it
probably should be significantly higher but the minimum 17 on
the crossfire enabled test dropped it considerably. I never noticed
a drop that low while playing so it was probably less than a fraction
of a second. But is it worth an additional $200 or so it costs
to run the EAX1950 Pro in Crossfire mode? Certainly not the triple
digit average FPS we have seen from current top of the line cards,
but keep in mind the $200-$300 price difference in a single high
end card over two mid-ranged cards.
Next up is Battlefield 2, my current favorite for
FPS games, with all of the graphics settings on high BF 2 is a
very realistic looking game, that realism usually takes its toll
on a vide card.
In BF 2 we see the Crossfire set up increasing the
gap over the non Crossfire. Again, about 10 FPS between the minimum
and maximum, and almost 15 FPS over the HL2 average.
Q4 benefited the most with Crossfire enabled with
50+ FPS across the board.
Madden would not run in Crossfire mode, after several
uninstall/reinstalls I gave up, however even with a single card
the FPS hovered right around the 60 FPS cap. .
Tomb Raider Legends was ran with the next generation
features enabled, and as a result scored the lowest in FPS of
all games tested
This is the first time in our series of tests we
had results in the 20's and 30's for average FPS. The FPS take
a significant hit by enabling the next generation features, but
the difference in graphics detail is like night and day. With
the next generation features disabled FPS jumped to Min: 52, Max:
78 and Average: 63.07
NEXT
