After months of hype ATI's answer to SLI is nearing release. APC Labs has the scoop on how it performs, including benchmarks and exclusive pictures. While retail Crossfire product is still a way off, the APC Labs team has managed to obtain a Crossfire setup based upon early hardware. The heart of the setup is an ECS PA1 MVP Extreme motherboard, using ATI?s RD400 Northbridge and SB450 Southbridge. Into this plug two RADEON X850XT cards, one a standard PCI-Express offering and the other one of ATI?s famed ?Master? cards. To run a Crossfire setup you will need to get your hands on one of these Master cards, which contain the extra smarts and special connector that you need for Crossfire to work.

apcmag.com