Futuremark 3DMark Vantage 1.0.1	Source: FutureMark

3DMark06 is the worldwide standard in advanced 3D game performance benchmarking. A fundamental tool for every company in the PC industry as well as PC users and gamers, 3DMark06 uses advanced real-time 3D game workloads to measure PC performance using a suite of DirectX 9 3D graphics tests, CPU tests, and 3D feature tests. 3DMark06 tests include all new HDR/SM3.0 graphics tests, SM2.0 graphics tests, AI and physics driven single and multiple cores or processor CPU tests and a collection of comprehensive feature tests to reliably measure next generation gaming performance today.

Futuremark 3DMark Vantage 1.0.1 Performance Overall: (P) Points Ranking Palit HD4870 X2 2GB 9116 Asus EAH3870 X2 1GB TOP/G/3DHTI/1G/A (Crossfire) 8852 Asus EAH4850 HTDI/512M 5579 GPU Score: Points Ranking Palit HD4870 X2 2GB 12983 Asus EAH3870 X2 1GB TOP/G/3DHTI/1G/A (Crossfire) 12252 Asus EAH4850 HTDI/512M 5905 CPU score: Points Ranking Palit HD4870 X2 2GB 4814 Asus EAH3870 X2 1GB TOP/G/3DHTI/1G/A (Crossfire) 4830 Asus EAH4850 HTDI/512M 4786

So how does $200 of video card stack up against a pair of last year's $250 or $500 flagship cards? 3DMark Vantage shows great scaling with the multi-GPU cards, but this test tends to be much more optimized for Crossfire and SLI gaming than what you'd find in real-world situations.

Crysis is a science fiction first-person shooter developed by Crytek. Crysis uses Microsoft's new API, DirectX 10 for graphics rendering, and includes the new engine—the CryEngine 2—that is the successor to Far Cry's CryEngine. CryEngine 2 is among the first engines to use the DirectX 10 framework of Windows Vista, but can also run using DirectX 9, both on Vista and Windows XP.

Crysis 1.2 (no AA) - DirectX10 1280x1024 HQ Points Ranking Palit HD4870 X2 2GB 40.46 Asus EAH3870 X2 1GB TOP/G/3DHTI/1G/A 39.7 Asus EAH3870 X2 1GB TOP/G/3DHTI/1G/A (Crossfire) 39.105 MSI R3870X2-T2D1G-OC 39.4 Asus EAH4850 HTDI/512M 40.835 1600x1200 HQ Points Ranking Palit HD4870 X2 2GB 38.2 Asus EAH3870 X2 1GB TOP/G/3DHTI/1G/A 34.2 Asus EAH3870 X2 1GB TOP/G/3DHTI/1G/A (Crossfire) 37.17 MSI R3870X2-T2D1G-OC 33.8 Asus EAH4850 HTDI/512M 30.79 1920x1200 HQ Points Ranking Palit HD4870 X2 2GB 35 Asus EAH3870 X2 1GB TOP/G/3DHTI/1G/A 29.9 Asus EAH3870 X2 1GB TOP/G/3DHTI/1G/A (Crossfire) 34.07 MSI R3870X2-T2D1G-OC 29.7 Asus EAH4850 HTDI/512M 26.2

Crysis shows a much closer race between the cards than 3Dmark - at 1600 X 1200 resolution the Asus EAH4850 is only 20% slower than the 4870X2, a card that costs 300% more.