• Athlon FX-53
• Jetway 939GT4L / NF4 standalone kit 6.39
• 2 x Corsair TwinX XMS3200 512M
• 2 x Pixelview 6600GT / Driver version 77.72
• Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 ST3160827A HD
• Windows XP SP2

3Dmark2003

With Bridge

Score=14401

Without Bridge

Score=12572

The difference is around 14.54%.

3Dmark2005

With Bridge

Score=6466

Without Bridge

Score=6147

The difference is around 5.34%.

It has been known that SLI implementation is more of a software thing. I believe future revisions of the Forceware drivers will narrow the performance differences. With such an implementation, those who have lost their bridge can still function in SLI mode. Those who have modded their NF4 nonSLI boards early Jan should find this solution very welcoming too.

As we have speculated earlier, NVIDIA wants to invade all markets. This is just the beginning. We will probably see more low costs boards paired with entry level cards real soon all from NVIDIA partners for both AMD and INTEL partners. Will ATi go for a "wireless" CrossFire solution? What about other chipset vendors? Will they make compatible boards that support SLI and CrossFire. It remains to be seen.