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Installation:::...
Installation started well. Our SLI test board, an Abit AN8, was physically ably to accomodate the 3D1
Then came the crunch, I tried the supplied drivers, followed by two WHQL drivers, followed by the latest available drivers, and none of them offered up the option to enable SLI. I know for a fact that the 3D1 functions fully (that means in SLI mode) on the ASUS A8N-SLI so naturally I assumed Abit's A8N would do likewise. I was wrong.
A quick flash of the BIOS to the latest available did absolutely nothing to rectify the situation so I was on the phone to those very nice people at Gigabyte's UK PR company more2 to arrange for a Gigabyte SLI board. At least that way I was guranteed compatibility.
A couple of days later I was greeted by the carrier wielding a parcel inside which sat a GA-K8NXP-SLI motherboard.
For the record, this board is also changing my opinions of Gigabyte in that it's one of the first boards I've used in a long time that hasn't left me chunnering their namwe under my breath. I've handled one or two okay motherboards from them, but on the whole they've ranked pretty lowly with me in recent years. This none though is a breath of fresh air and seems to be a genuinely solid piece of hardware. Lord I hope this is a turning point for them!
Anyway, step one was to assemble the system which, with the now compatible motherboard in place went quickly and easily, and ended up looking like this:
GA-K8NXP-SLI motherboard
AMD Athlon64 4000+
1GB (2x512MB) GeIL One DDR
WindowsXP Pro + relevant updates
Western Digital WD80JB HDD
Detonator 77.77 set for optimum performance
Doom III High Quality:::...
Not my top choice as a game but still a damned fine benchmark, DoomIII was coded with high powered video cards and subsystems in mind and as such it makes for a gruelling terst of horsepower.
1024x768 - 90.0 fps
1280x1024 - 79.0 fps
1600x1200 - 64.8 fps
Interestingly we see the 3D1 running a touch faster than a similarly specified pair of 6800GT cards. Granted, the 3D1's core is running a touch faster but I'd assumed having dual GPUs on a single card would involve some kind of performance trade-off, even though in theory it should actually be a more efficient approach.
The upshot seems to be that we're seeing performance levels very close to what we'd expect from running a pair of 6800GTs at the same 370/500 clocks.
Far Cry Fort Demo:::...
Unlike DoomIII, Far Cry is a game I loved and played and was, until Half Life 2 appeared at least, one of the most visually stunning games on the market.
1024x768
Average FPS: 102.83
1280x1024
Average FPS: 102.14
1600x1200
Average FPS: 102.8
And here with AA and AF applied:
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