PCI Express And SLI Scaling: How Many Lanes Do You Need?

SLI Scaling: DiRT 2

DiRT 2 is slightly CPU-bound when using dual GeForce GTX 480’s at medium resolutions, gaining “only” 72% from the use of two cards at 1680x1050. Once again, GPU dependence increases as resolutions are increased, so the SLI advantage accelerates to 91% at 2560x1600.

DiRT 2 wasn’t very bandwidth-dependent with a single card, so the fact that the dual-x8 slot configuration trails the dual-x16 configuration by only 2-5% is no surprise here, either.

Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom is a Senior Staff Editor at Tom's Hardware US. He tests and reviews cases, cooling, memory and motherboards.