Price-wise, the 5750 sits in direct competition with Nvidia's GTS 450, and here's where the real battle lies. Alone, the 450 offers extremely competent performance at middling resolutions – close on 60fps in Far Cry 2 and 30fps in the considerably more demanding Just Cause 2. As you'd expect for a budget card, it runs out of puff at higher resolutions, but not as quickly as the 5750.
Pair it with a twin, however, and the whole game changes. The performance of the 450 in SLI mode at 1,680 x 1,050 is nothing less than stellar: 70fps in DiRT 2, 125fps in Far Cry 2, 57fps in Just Cause 2 and 40fps in the massively demanding Heaven 2.0 Benchmark. It not only pushes the HD 5750 CF setup into the shade, it outperforms a single GTX 460 by a very tangible margin.
And what of the GTX 460, the most expensive single card on test? The Zotac models we benchmarked clocked in at just a shade cheaper than a pair of GTS 450s, and while a single 460's frame rates at all resolutions couldn't quite compete, it's pairing them up that makes the difference for high-resolution gaming.
At £380, you get a properly high-end setup, with serious high-end results. So high, in fact, that a pair of 460s will comfortably outperform a single GTX 480, which will set you back the same price.
The price-performance ratio prize, however, has to go to the pair of GTS 450's in SLI mode. Great mid-range performance for under £200? We'll take two.
Benchmarks
