Lightning strikes twice in this review from [H]ard|OCP, a pair of MSI N580GTX Lightning XE 3GB cards in SLI are tested on a variety of games.  Apart from showing off the capabilities of a system with a $1200+ graphics subsystem it demonstrates a very important example of scaling; the effect of doubling the GDDR5 available to the GTX580 GPU.  They’ve tested the 1.5GB version previously and so can compare that performance as well as contrasting it with the HD 6970 in Crossfire.  Their testing showed that the extra memory does help, as long as you are using multiple monitors.  If you are using a single display, even a 2560×1600 30" display, you are wasting your money picking up the 3GB models, there simply isn’t enough pixels to be pushed to need the 3GB per card.  The AMD setup did come behind in performance somewhat, but since it costs about $500 less that does not make it a bad alternative.  Head over to [H] and prepare to feel jealous.

"Two MSI N580GTX Lightning XE 3GB video cards in SLI! Tested in NV Surround. We are going to find out if these 3GB video cards hold an advantage over two GeForce GTX 580’s and two Radeon HD 6970’s. This is the most VRAM per video card we have ever gamed with. We test with seven games, including the new F.3.A.R."

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