SLI Is Coming: Time To Analyze PCI Express

Graphics Cards: ATI X800XT, ATI X600, NVIDIA 6800GT

ATI's pride: the Radeon X800XT is the Canadian firm's top model.

We used three current graphic cards: the ATI Radeon X800XT, NVIDIA's GeForce 6800 GT, and the middle-of-the-road ATI Radeon X600XT. The last of these had some problem during the tests as the system became unstable. The reason likely is that the x1 PCIe mode was not able to supply enough power for the graphics card - both the ATI X800XT and the NVIDIA card use an extra auxiliary plug, so they don't have that problem.

The GeForce 6800GT was used to represent the NVIDIA architecture.

Last but not least, we also used an average graphics card to analyze the influence of the interface on less-potent graphics solutions.