Benchmarking 3D Vision Surround
You’re going to see fewer benchmarks here than you otherwise might in a GPU-based review. Much of this is a direct effect of 3D Vision Surround’s compatibility. 3D Mark Vantage, Crysis, Aliens vs. Predator, and DiRT 2 are all titles we’d normally include. But because they don’t render properly, you’re realistically not going to run them in 3D. It’s a small consolation that you’ll at least be able to play in Surround 2D.
To show off what 3D Vision Surround can do (and to demonstrate how quietly a pair of GeForce GTX 480s can really run in SLI—a claim that I corroborated in my GeForce GTX 480 Update), Nvidia brought over a beautiful machine built by Digital Storm. The Core i7-960-based processor was overclocked to 3.8 GHz, opening up plenty of headroom for graphics performance. The Raven RV02-based enclosure (complemented by a few custom touches by Digital Storm) is well-suited to a high-end graphics configuration, since it exhausts hot air out the top.
Bear in mind that the benchmark results with Eyefinity 6 listed don’t refer to a six-display array, but rather a pair of Radeon HD 5870 2GB boards driving the same three displays as Nvidia’s Surround (2D) arrangement, so it is, in fact, an apples-to-apples comparison.
| Test Hardware | |
|---|---|
| Processor | Intel Core i7-960 (Bloomfield) 3.20 GHz, 4.8 GT/s, 8MB L3 Cache, power-saving settings enabled. Turbo Boost enabled |
| Motherboard | EVGA X58 FTW3 (LGA 1366) X58/ICH10 |
| Memory | 6GB Tech NPS DDR3-1600 (3 x 2GB) @ DDR3-1600 |
| Hard Drive | Corsair CMFSSD-128GBG1D 128GB SATA 3 Gb/s SSD |
| Row 4 - Cell 0 | Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB SATA 3 Gb/s Hard Drive |
| Graphics Cards | 2 x EVGA GeForce GTX 480 1.5GB |
| Row 6 - Cell 0 | 2 x Radeon HD 5870 2GB Eyefinity 6 |
| Power Supply | Tech NPS 1,000W Power Supply |
| System Software And Drivers | |
| Operating System | Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate x64 |
| DirectX | DirectX 11 |
| Platform Driver | Intel INF Chipset Update Utility 9.1.1.1019 |
| Graphics Driver | Nvidia GeForce 258.69 |
| Row 13 - Cell 0 | AMD Catalyst 10.6 |
| Games | |
|---|---|
| Just Cause 2 | 3D: All settings maxed out. 2D: All settings maxed out. Desert Sunrise benchmark, 4800x900 / 5760x1080 |
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 | 3D: All settings maxed out, Depth of Field: off, AA: disabled. 2D: All settings maxed out, Depth of Field: enabled, 4xAA. Second Sun, 45 second sequence, FRAPS, 4800x900 / 5760x1080 |
| DiRT 2 | 3D: Not compatible. 2D: High Settings. Steam version, Custom benchmark script, DX11 Rendering, 4800x900 / 5760x1080 |
| S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat | 3D: Static Lighting, Extreme settings. 2D: DirectX 11 Lighting, Extreme settings, SSAO: default. , Benchmark tool, 4800x900 / 5760x1080 |
| Battlefield: Bad Company 2 | 3D: All settings maxed out. 2D: All settings maxed out. Opening cinematic, 145 second sequence, FRAPS, 4800x900 / 5760x1080 |
| Far Cry 2 | 3D: DirectX 9, Bloom Disabled, Post FX: low, Shadows: medium. 2D: DirectX 10, Ultra High quality settings. Benchmark tool, Ranch Medium, 4800x900 / 5760x1080 |
