Sapphire PURE CrossFire PC-AM2RD580

Xvid Encoding:

We tested video encoding performance using VirtualDub-MPEG version 1.6.15 and a multithreaded version of the Xvid codec, along with the LAME MT MP3 encoder for encoding audio. We did a two-pass encode of a 15-minute 276MB digital TV recording with a target file size of 100MB.


The Sapphire performs better than either of the other AM2 boards by at least 15 seconds - even though the Sapphire is at 2T command rate and the MSI is at 1T, both with 3-3-3-9 memory timings at 800MHz memory bus.

MP3 Encoding:

We used LAME MT for our audio encoding test - it's the multithreaded version of the popular LAME MP3 encoder. We ran tests with both Intel's and Microsoft's compilers - naturally, the Intel compiler resulted in some performance increases on Intel's processors. We converted all 18 tracks from Moby's popular Play album to a 192kbps variable bit-rate MP3.


The Sapphire performs about the same as the other AM2 boards, but for a second or so difference overall in both Microsoft and Intel compiled LAME MP3 encoding.

Something upsets the Sapphire board in MP3 decoding tests and it drops quite a few seconds in one of the two tests, although it isn't consistent in single card or CrossFire. Overall on average it comes out slower.