Cross-fire FTW: Benchmarks of Improvement

Yesterday I received a first-of-a-kind package, my first second GPU! This is quite the milestone in my book. I've always wanted to have two GPU's in one of my desktops and I finally decided it was worth it to put off an upgrade for 6-12 months. Here's what I ordered:

• SAPPHIRE 100225L Radeon HD 3870 512MB 256-bit GDDR4 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail
• Thermaltake A2018 120mm Blue LED Case Fan - Retail

I decided to throw the fan in for good measure because one of my fans has been periodically turning off and with two GPU's I don't want to risk an overheat. Plus... it's BLUE!

My original card is:

• DIAMOND Viper 3870PE4512SB Radeon HD 3870 512MB 256-bit GDDR4 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail

For the love of me I can't figure out why I originally paid twice as much for the Diamon card when I could have gotten two Sapphire's for the same amount. Other than the fact that it had a full 5 eggs, takes up two expansion slots and is pretty (also possibly factory overclocked) they're basically the same card. So now I have the Diamond Viper Radeon HD 3870 512MB cross-fired with a Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 512MB. Just like Dyno-ing a stock car before you mod it (LINK TO POST ABOUT MODDERS), of course I had to benchmark my computer to get the before and after performance. I am more than happy with the percentage performance improvement for the given cost - compared to upgrading the system. Here are the numbers:

I'm not sure why the CPU scaled up at all but it's not that significant when compared to the overall score improvement which is ~35%. That's pretty huge if you ask me. I know it's not double, but I wasn't expecting perfectly scaled results. Who knows... maybe overclocking is what I need to get that CPU score somewhere respectable. [Insert diabolical laugh]