ATI Technologies proclaimed the world’s record 3DMark05 score that was achieved by the company’s CrossFire platform featuring two presumably overclocked graphics cards. The new record is 15 498 marks, which is around 6% higher compared to the previous record held by a multi-GPU system based on NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra SLI platform.

The system that attained the world’s top 3DMark05 score to date was powered by an ATI RADEON XPRESS 200 CrossFire Edition mainboard, a RADEON X850 XT-series graphics card as well as a RADEON X850 CrossFire Edition graphics card, both were allegedly overclocked substantially over default clock-speeds. Usually systems that set records are equipped with AMD Athlon 64 FX processors running at speeds higher than default as well as high-performance memory modules. The record-breaking machines are typically cooled down using nitrogen or cascade cooling systems.

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ATI did not disclose any peculiarities of the testing, such as clock-speeds of the graphics cards and the processor. The company also did not reveal driver version it used; driver version is important because Futuremark, the creator of the 3DMark benchmarks, certifies new driver releases ensuring there are no 3DMark-specific optimizations to artificially boost scores.

Previous 3DMark05 record was 14623, set on a computer that was based on AMD Athlon 64 FX-55 processor overclocked to 3444MHz speed, DFI NF4 mainboard and two ASUS GeForce 6800 Ultra boards clocked at 627MHz/1404MHz for core/memory.

ATI CrossFire platform consists of ATI RADEON XPRESS 200 CrossFire Edition core-logic, ATI RADEON X800/X850-series graphics card as well as ATI RADEON X800/X850-series CrossFire Edition graphics card equipped with Compositing Engine, a special set of chips that blends parts of frames rendered by different graphics cards. ATI RADEON XPRESS chipsets code-named RD400 and RD480 for Intel and AMD processors respectively support the latest processors and memory types. Mainboards featuring the chipsets are claimed to support all the latest I/O technologies, such as Serial ATA II, and are advertised as “built for the enthusiast”.

The CrossFire offers different patterns to boost performance of two graphics cards and also offers ways to improve image quality through advanced antialiasing patterns never before seen on desktop computers.

ATI RADEON XPRESS 200 CrossFire Edition mainboards will be available from ATI’s partners beginning in June, whereas RADEON X850 CrossFire Edition graphics cards will be in production end of June and available mid-July. RADEON X800 CrossFire Edition cards will be available early August, ATI said.