Direct SLI & CrossFire performance comparative

We compared a standard MSI motherboard which features both SLI and CrossFire, the P55-GD65, to the MSI Big Bang-FUZION that includes the Lucid Hydra 200 chip. This allows us to see how much performance difference there is from driver overhead or system optimisation using two identical cards, and if the Hydra chip gives any immediate (dis-)advantage.





As Batman is hard-limited to 60fps, we look at the minimum frame rate to see the smoothness of gameplay. Clearly we expected the Nvidia cards to turn out better in this Nvidia TWIMTBP game, and for all intent and purposes actual SLI and Hydra are within a hairs breadth of each other. Unfortunately the same can't be said for the Radeon cards which, when installed in the Hydra, stutter occasionally, dropping the minimum, although the average is still solidly 60fps.

In the other games things aren't so rosy though, with the Hydra configurations falling really very far behind the actual SLI setups. Call of Duty 4 suffered microstuttering that completely hindered any smooth gameplay - this was regardless of whether ATI or Nvidia cards were used and has been consistent since we first started using Hydra with earlier drivers.