I had built a system for a friend about 6 months ago. It was ready to roar, minus the video card as the rest of it was expensive enough. It did the trick for the time being, but he was ready to go bigger so I ordered him some video cards. They just came in, so I’m doing some before and after benchmarks.

Current Stats:
Intel i7 (4 core) @ 3.4ghz
6mb DDR3 @ 1333mhz Tri-Channel Configuration (3 x 2G)
2 x 1TB Hard Drives
Bluray / DVD Writer Combo Drive
ATI Radeon HD 5450 DX11

New cards:
EVGA nVidia GTS 450 x 2 (SLi)

I’m planning on getting benchmarks with just the ATI, 1 card, and 2 cards in SLi.
3DMark 2007 (basic), Heaven, Tropics, and Sanctuary are on the agenda.

Stay tuned.

ATI Radeon HD 5450 1024mb [stats]
Windows 7 “Experience” Score:

3.6 Overall
3.6 Desktop Performance for Windows Aero
5.7 3D business and gaming graphics performance

3DMark 2011 – P332 Overall

Graphics Score: 283
Physics Score: 6299
Combined Score: 302

Heaven – 1280 x 800, DX11, Tessellation Normal

Min: 2.6
Max: 8.5
Avg FPS: 3.8
Score: 96

Tropics – 1280 x 800 DX11, Ambient Occlusion

Min: 1.3
Max: 6.2
Avg FPS: 2.1
Score: 53

Sanctuary – 1280 x 800 DX11, Ambient Occlusion

Min: 1.4
Max: 1.8
Avg FPS: 1.4
Score: 60

Crysis SP Demo – 1024 x 768 (custom: mostly high settings):
New Game, 300 seconds from suit online

Min: 2
Max: 30
Avg FPS: 14.8

World of Warcraft 1280×1024 Custom High:

Min: 11
Max: 38
Avg FPS: 27

EVGA geForce 450 GTS 1024mb [stats]
Windows 7 “Experience” Score:

5.9 Overall
7.2 Desktop performance for Windows Aero
7.2 3D business and gaming graphics performance

3DMark 2011 – P2414 Overall

Graphics Score: 2168
Physics Score: 6508
Combined Score: 2214

Heaven

Min: 20.3
Max: 73.2
Avg FPS: 32.3
Score: 813

Tropics

Min: 41.5
Max: 111.7
Avg FPS: 62.7
Score: 1581

Sanctuary

Min: 50.8
Max: 89.4
Avg FPS: 73.0
Score: 3094

Crysis SP Demo – 1024 x 768 (custom: mostly high settings):
Nw Game, 300 seconds from suit online

Min: 16
Max: 326
Avg FPS: 111.569

World of Warcraft 1280×1024 Custom High:

Min: 55
Max: 63
Avg FPS: 60.1

2x EVGA geForce 450 GTS 1024 in SLi
Windows 7 Experience Score: No Change

3DMark 2011 – P4332

Graphics Score: 4288
Physics Score: 6474
Combined Score: 3056

Heaven

Min: 30.0
Max: 133.2
Avg FPS: 60.6
Score: 1526

Tropics

Min: 77.2
Max: 210.9
Avg FPS: 120.4
Score: 3033

Sanctuary

Min: 96.0
Max: 165.4
Avg FPS 136.4
Score: 5783

Crysis SP Demo – 1024 x 768 (custom: mostly high settings):
Nw Game, 300 seconds from suit online

Min: 5
Max: 296
Avg FPS: 115.8

World of Warcraft 1280×1024 Custom High:

Min: 62
Max: 192
Avg FPS: 97.4

World of Warcraft 1280×1024 Ultra / Max

Min: 78
Max: 191
Avg FPS: 115.8

World of Warcraft 2650×1600 Ultra / Max

Min: 64
Max: 144
Avg FPS: 105.9

and finally – the Max it can do – World of Warcraft 2560×1600 Ultra / Max with 8X Supersampling (Anti-Aliasing)

Min: 47
Max: 84
Avg FPS: 64.8

Still over 60fps!

Some of the inconsistencies you may see with adding the second card are lower numbers in Crysis. It’s a pre-release demo, so it’s pretty old. In hindsight I probably should have chosen a better demo – but it was already installed and still looked and played great. So the conclusions you can draw from these numbers are – you can get suitable numbers from 2 relatively inexpensive cards. All told we’re looking at a little over $200 for the two that allow you to run most games at max settings, especially if you’re running a lower resolution such as 1280×800, 1600 x 1024, or even 1920×1080 (1080p Equivalent).