Chillblast Fusion Trident

Chillblast itself claims that the benefits of three-way SLI only start to kick in at very high resolutions. To put it through its paces, we hooked the Fusion Trident up to a 30in Eizo FlexScan SX3031W monitor (web ID: 137331) and saw just a few frames per second extra in Crysis at 1,920 x 1,200. At 2,560 x 1,600 and very high detail settings, the game still crawled along at 8fps.

The most useful boost came at 2,560 x 1,600 with medium detail, giving an average of 45fps with three-way SLI, 40fps with dual SLI and just 28fps witha single card.

Multiple graphics cards have never managed to convince us of their worth, and three-way SLI doesn't do much to dispel the notion of it being more expensive and more trouble than it's worth. The Fusion Trident does give the highest 3D graphics scores we've seen, but for a system nudging £2,000 without keyboard, mouse or monitor, it isn't the best value for money.

Author: David Fearon