It's important for us to perform a number of game benchmarks as well as the synthetic tests because many of our systems on the test bench have features which market them directly at gamers. So here we have a selection of popular gaming titles, critically acclaimed and action-packed.
Far Cry 2
Far Cry 2 is bundled with a benchmark tool that allows the user to customise the graphical details as well as type of area and events to measure the FPS of. In this situation, the gaming benchmarks were run at two sets of resolutions with varying AA and AF settings. All benchmarks used the highest level of detail possible otherwise (including DirectX10), and consisted of a flyover of Ranch (long).
At low resolutions the FX-8150 is outperformed by the 1100T, a disappointing result but not a good indication of real world performance. At higher resolutions and settings, the FX-8150 more or less matches the 1100T in Far Cry 2.
DiRT 3
DiRT 3 is the latest in Codemasters exciting rally series that throws you into a graphically detailed world of off road events. It makes use of DirectX 11 features such as tessellation to improve the visual experience. Benchmarks here are run at the highest details possible using the in-game benchmark tool.
DiRT 3 is a much newer game than Far Cry 2, and we should expect the FX-8150 to take full advantage of this, but in reality it can't. At higher resolutions the overclocked results were repeatably poorer than those at stock at stock settings. There's not much margin as we're mainly GPU limited, but this does seem the case.
Metro 2033
Based on the novel by the same name, Metro 2033 is a first person shooter with elements of survival horror. As Artyom, you trawl through the mutant infested metro systems of post-apocalyptic Moscow. The game delivers presents a grim ambience that reflects on the overall atmosphere of the underground setting. Metro 2033 uses the setting as a back drop to showcase some of the best visuals of any game currently available, making it ideal for testing the highest end systems.
Benchmarks were run using the bundled benchmark tool (using DirectX 11) and set to the highest details possible.
Metro 2033 is a modern and very demanding game, and therefore we should expect the FX-8150 to shine here, but as you can see, it fails to even beat a stock 1100T when overclocked to 4.7 GHz across eight cores. Perhaps Metro 2033 isn't the most efficient multi-threaded game, but this is a measurable step backwards in performance at a HD resolution with lots of eye candy!
