Introduction

I just want to say before I get started that what we're doing today isn't really practical in any sense of the word, except for the fact that it can be done. Before we really get into it, let's just put into perspective what this is going to cost to set up. With the HD 5970 TOXIC being rumored at $999 U.S. and the GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 480 we're using today costing about $500 U.S. - you're talking about a $1500 U.S. video card setup alone.

While for some that's not the end of the world, a Tri-SLI GTX 480 setup is going to cost the same, HD 5970 in CrossFireX setting you back around $1200 U.S. and CFX Sapphire HD 5970 TOXICs closer to $2000 U.S. - the thing you have to remember about what we're doing today is that the $500 US GIGABYTE GTX 480 is doing nothing more than providing PhysX. In a game that doesn't offer PhysX that extra $500 US isn't going to do anything more for performance whatsoever.

I'm going to be honest, though, and say I really wanted to combine the world's fastest video card with what is not only the world's fastest single GPU card, but also the world's fastest PhysX card. Now, we know that NVIDIA frown about the whole mixing NVIDIA and ATI cards together thing, but like most people, we don't care and thanks to a bright individual we're able to do it today.

Let's talk about how we got it all up and running before we get into the actual performance numbers.