Times two
A look back at the GeForce GTX 480 review shows that NVIDIA best GPU is able to outgun AMD's Radeon HD 5850 in every test. No surprises there, folks, as it's like comparing apples to oranges.But two oranges might just make an apple, if you excuse the tenuous analogy, because giving Radeon HD 5850 a helping hand by strapping another to it and the fight becomes far more even, at least in terms of cost.
Two cards are pretty straightforward to connect on an X58 chipset-based board. The motherboard in question is an ASUS P6X58D Premium. Its two x16 PCIe electrical slots leave very little room for the GPUs to breathe. We could install it in the bottommost PCIe x16 mechanical slot, but that would mean sacrificing a little performance as it runs at x8. Slot arrangement is well worth bearing in mind when purchasing a high-end motherboard, clearly.
Radeon HD 5850s reduce frequencies from 725MHz/4,000MHz to 157MHz/1,200MHz when idling in Windows. This is why the cards can have the fans spinning at a near-silent 1,000rpm-1,200rpm and keep temperatures below 45°C for the upper card and 39°C for the lower when on the desktop.
The meat in the Radeon sandwich is the GeForce GTX 480. It will spank one HD 5850, of course, so let's find out what happens when it takes on twins.
