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Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory behaves pretty much the same way as the other games we've seen (except for Serious Sam II). You can expect Super AA 8x and 12x to be slightly slower than 4x AA and 6x AA with Crossfire disabled (basically running on a single card). The penalty seems fairly constant around 3 fps or 8 fps at the most. Of course, if you want quality, you want more than Super AA 8x and 12x - you want the additional 2x super sampling. Thankfully, it has no (or at least very little) penalty.

Conclusion:

Crossfire is no slouch. ATI made sure of that. Being the late comer, ATI realize that they will have to offer more than what NVIDIA have with SLI. By the looks of it, they've succeeded in doing so. You can rest assured that no matter what card you choose (a low end card such as the Radeon X1600 or a high end card such as the Radeon X1900), you will have an increase in performance when you add a second, similar card (preferable from the same series).

Much like SLI. if for some reason you don't experience an increase in performance (more likely because there's no AFR support for your game of choice - yet), Crossfire offer ways to enhance image quality even more with the use of Super AA. However, ATI is not content with simply doubling the number of samples used for anti aliasing. They took Crossfire's Super AA further than NVIDIA's SLI Anti Aliasing. In addition to using a more customized sample pattern, ATI has thrown 'free' 2x super sampling into the mix. These two features of Super AA made sure ATI has the upper hand in image quality.

After looking at these new facts, we gained a more deep found respect for ATI's design team. It's clear that they made some critical and important design decisions with the entire X1K series. It's not just providing 'SM 3 done right' but also multi rendering done properly. However, they know that performance alone is not enough to compete with NVIDIA. By using higher clocks in their latest GeForce 7900 and 7600, NVIDIA have once again equaled ATI. So, the Canadian manufacturer realize they need something more to clinch the battle - the penalty-free 2x supersampling with Crossfire. 

However, Crossfire is not without its quirks. The most noticeable is the use of Crossfire cable and master card with high end parts. However, not like early reviews stated, it's not the installation part that troubles us - it's the quality of the cable and how 'sensitive' it is to improper installation. Many Crossfire users are no stranger to problems with display corruption (white lines on their screen or screen flickering) caused by faulty / defective Crossfire cables or improper installation. NVIDIA's SLI has the upper hand here. The internal SLI connector is less prone to defects and improper installation. You also less likely to accidentally bump or bend it since it's inside the case. There's also the noise. If you think a single Radeon X1900 is noisy, you'll be horrified with two. It's simply sounds like a hair dryer when both fan's are at full speed. So, be prepared to buy a third party solution if you want a quiet system.

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