P67, X58, And NF200: The Best Platform For CrossFire And SLI

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Intel’s flagship X58 chipset supports three-way SLI and triple-channel RAM, while its fastest gaming processor is stuck with a far less-capable P67 platform. With multiple GPU installations hanging in the balance, which solution should you choose?

CrossFire Platform Performance: S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call Of Pripyat

The S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat benchmark pushes beyond the limits of two-way CrossFire when using Ultra quality and Ultra SSAO, even at our lowest test resolution. Superior CPU architecture allows the P67 platforms to beat X58, in spite of the X58’s higher base clock, higher memory bandwidth, and greater number of PCIe pathways.

The NF200 PCIe bridge boosts P67 platform performance all the way up to 2560x1600, where the lowly x4 slot of the basic P67 design begins hurting the third card’s performance.

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