NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450 SLI versus ATI Radeon HD 5770 CrossFire

The Test System

All testing was done on a fresh install of Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit with all the latest updates installed. All benchmarks were completed on the desktop with no other software programs running. The Kingston HyperX T1 DDR3 memory modules were run in triple-channel mode at 1866MHz with 8-8-8-24 1T timings. The ATI Radeon HD 5000 series cards were all tested using CATALYST 10.9 drivers and the NVIDIA GeForce cards all used Forceware 260.63 drivers. The ASUS P6X58D-E motherboard was run using BIOS 0303 with the processor running stock settings and Turbo enabled.

Windows 7 Drivers Used:
Intel Chipset Inf Update Program V9.1.1.1025
Realtek Audio Driver V6.0.1.6037 for Windows 64bit Windows 7.(WHQL)
Marvell Yukon Gigabit Ethernet Driver V11.10.5.3 for 32/64bit Windows 7.(WHQL)
Marvell 9128 SATA 6Gbps Controller Driver V1.0.0.1036 for 32/64bit Windows 7.

Here is the Intel LGA 1366 Test platform:

Intel Test Platform
Component	Brand/Model	Live Pricing
Processor	Intel Core i7-970	Click Here
Motherboard	ASUS P6X58D-E	Click Here
Memory	6GB Kingston DDR3 1866MHz	Click Here
Video Card	See Below	Click Here
Hard Drive	Crucial C300 256GB SSD	Click Here
Cooling	Titan Finrar	Click Here
Power Supply	Corsair HX850W	Click Here
Chassis	None (Open Bench)	Click Here
Operating System	Windows 7 Ultimate 64-Bit	Click Here

Video Cards Tested:

• EVGA GeForce GTX 460 768MB SuperClocked – 763MHz Core/1526MHz Shader/950MHz Memory
• NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450 1GB – 783MHz Core/1566MHz Shader/902MHz Memory
• MSI GeForce GTS 450 1GB Cyclone – 850MHz Core/1700MHz Shader/1000MHz Memory
• EVGA GeForce GTS 450 1GB FTW – 920MHz Core/1840MHz Shader/1026MHz Memory
• ASUS GeForce GTS 450 1GB DirectCU TOP – 925MHz Core/1850MHz Shader/1000MHz Memory
• Sapphire Radeon HD 5770 – 850Mhz Core / 1200MHz Memory
  

NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450 1GB Reference Cards in SLI:

ATI Radeon HD 5770 Reference Cards in CrossFire: