Core i7 Multi-GPU SLI Crossfire Game performance review - 1 - A slightly dark introduction

Guru3D Core i7 SupaDupa Multi-GPU Game performance review.

2-way, 3-way, heck even 4-way GPU performance compared using Intel's fastest processor on the globe.

Note: if you haven't done so, please read up on Core i7 processors in our launch article first, you can click here to do so. 

Wooooh, momma momma momma... do we have an article for you today. If you are into threesomes... maybe even foursomes, well you are in luck my man. See, there is just so much more to the Core i7 release and X58 mainboard series than we showed in the previous Core i7 article you just read (you did do that right?). See, a golden rule in hardware land is this: one of the biggest advantages of having everything right is that in certain situations, you can get a pretty darn nice gaming experience... if you have enough cash to spend of course.

Of course I'm talking about Multi-GPU gaming, hard-core enthusiast l33t unadulterated gaming with frame rates flying so fast that in a race simulator you would actually imagine yourself to be in the race-car.

As our previous article has shown, today's processors like Intel's Core 2 and AMD's Phenom X series are really fast enough for your single-GPU based graphics card. The same rule applies to SLI or Crossfire gaming, unless you go really extreme the CPU does not make that big a difference.

But once you get to play around with so much RAW CPU computing performance, there is a situation or two where you as a gamer might see some benefits. And that's extremely high-end Multi-GPU gaming.

This article will cover such Multi-GPU gaming, both ATI CrossfireX and NVIDIA SLI. We are not talking two GeForce 9600 GT's in SLI or a set of Radeon HD 4850 cards in Crossfire, no sir... we start in the high-end performance segment. Some examples of the cards we'll put in Crossfire or SLI are:

• Radeon HD 4870 CrossfireX
• Radeon HD 4870 X2
• Radeon HD 4870 X2 Crossfire X (QuadFire)
• GeForce 9800 GX2 SLI
• GeForce GTX 260 SLI
• GeForce GTX 280 SLI
• GeForce GTX 280 3-way SLI.

Now, the amount of cash you need to drop on systems like these is retarded really, so I'm not even going to discuss that as we all no this has nothing to do with price / performance ratios. Neither are we discussing power consumption as we all know that drawing 650 Watts from the PSU is not a laughing matter. Articles like these are the X-factor, bragging rights... the quest for the eternal e-peen. To accomplish all this we had to come up with a demonic plan, as we will need a lot of gear for this article alright.

We are going to build a system which I'm going to call Lucifer, whose Synonyms are: archangel, beast, devil, diablo, evil one, fallen angel, Mephistopheles, Prince of Darkness. To live up to that name, we need some A-grade components. So we dragged ASUS by their ears and have them ship in a SLI certified X58 mainboard. We ended up with the mother of all mainboards, their X58 based Rampage 2 Extreme.

And who has the most wicked memory on the globe? Of course, OCZ. OCZ, with flaming speed, supplied some of their finest triple channel ready memory available. Intel decided to ship out their fastest demon, the Core i7 965. To keep that CPU from bursting into flames, Noctua shipped out their new NH-C12P heapipe cooler to keep things chilled.

ATI and NVIDIA made sure we got plenty of cards to test with, yet one thing was still missing. And thus BFG, lured from the shadows, quickly kicked three GeForce 280 GTXes our way. All we need to do is take a couple of graphics cards, slap them in this system and show what hellish performance you can achieve when you start a do it yourself project like shown today.

Let's create some dark matter, behold the beast... are you guys ready ?