STB Black Magic 3D

Benchmarks

 

Test system

 

 

 

Single card results

	640x480	800x600
GLQuake Demo2	100.1	65.6
Quake II Demo1	86.8	58.3
Quake II Crusher	44.1	35.6
Unreal timedemo .2	48.14	27.00

 

 

SLI results

	640x480	800x600	1024x768
GLQuake Demo2	176.0	119.4	75.6
Quake II Demo1	103.0	94.8	68.4
Quake II Crusher	45.2	45.1	41.4
Unreal timedemo .2	53.8	51.2	35.8

 

 

Single vs. SLI results

Single	SLI
Dark Blue	Red

 

GLQuake Demo2 - 640x480 100.1 176.0   Quake II Demo1 - 640x480 86.8 103.0   Quake II Crusher - 640x480 44.1 45.2   Unreal - 640x480 48.14 53.8

GLQuake Demo2 - 800x600 65.6 119.4   Quake II Demo1 - 800x600 58.3 94.8   Quake II Crusher - 800x600 35.6 45.1   Unreal - 800x600 27 51.2

There is no doubt about it, the voodoo2 is still kicking ass in all areas. Notice how the CPU does not become the main factor in GLQuake, as shown by adding the second voodoo2 and nearly doubling the framerate.

 

Who should buy SLI?

A question that will likely come up, who really needs SLI?

If you examine the results above, you will notice that the framerates are good even with one card. So, who needs SLI? The speed demon. SLI is essential to have the best framerates at all times; consistently. If you are a gamer that likes to play higher resolutions than 640x480 (which most of us are) then the SLI becomes a very safe investment. At 800x600, the framerates are often not as high with a single voodoo2 as one might hope. SLI also shows incredible framerates at 1024x768. The choice is yours, but (assuming you have the money) I would say SLI is actually still a nice addition to any system.

 

Conclusion