Alienware has demonstrated the potential of its Video Array technology and has released figures which put systems using dual graphics cards, at the pinnacle of gaming performance.
Video Array is Alienware's exclusive patent-pending innovation that enables two high-performance PCI-Express video cards to process graphics commands in parallel, thus significantly increasing the graphics performance.
Using an Alienware system comprised of a Xeon 3400 MHz, 1GB of memory an 80 GB hard drive and two NV45s, compared to a similar system with only one NV45, the company has produced figures which show an increase of performance of up to 100 per cent on some applications.
In 3Dmark 03 at 1600x1200 8X Anisotropic and 8X FSAA the Video Array based system received a score of 3105, an increase of 77 per cent compared to the 1758 achieved with a single card.
Under conditions which are not very, graphically, demanding the Video Array system still offers a 30 to 40 per cent performance increase. But where the system really produces remarkable results is when the demands on the GPUs become intense. Using 8X FSAA and 8 Anisotropic can result in performance increases of up to 100 per cent with the average being around 70 per cent.
The potential of such a system is undeniable and the involvement of a company of Alienware's pedigree can only make gamers salivate with anticipation at what the final versions of Video Array systems will be able to deliver. The only sour note is expected to be the price but then again gaming supremacy does not come cheap.