VGA charts don't show potential

Finally got around to joining up. Hope there aren't already too many threads dealing with this...

The VGA charts on Tom's are very comprehensive, and I was really interested and impressed to see all the new additions to the Q1/Q3 2008 charts. I read them because I was checking to see if its worth adding in a second GTX 280 to my PC. As I read through the charts, my excitement faded... to be replaced with disappointment.

The VGA charts- while comprehensive- no longer reflect real world performance in many situations, nor the potential performance of most of the multi-GPU configurations. This is a shame, because here is a chance to have the most in-depth, relevant graphics card comparison of all the PC hardware sites.

Specifically, the 2008 Q3 charts. While the older generation cards may reflect their potential performance the newer gen are limited: the GTX280 SLI cards are a third of the way down the list! This makes most of the current high end tests almost meaningless. This doesn't show the type of performance one could expect if the entire system were up to speed. Is this because the platform the cards are tested on is using a low-mid range (x6800 now days) processor?

If this is the case, its a big lesson regarding the sort of processor needed to make the most of newer high-end hardware. But still, is it possible that the next time they are updated a different platform or CPU could be used?

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