X-bit labs

Games against CPUs. Part II.

Category: CPU

by Ilya Gavrichenkov

[ 11/11/2005 | 01:12 PM ]

We decided to write an update to our CPU gaming performance analysis. In this article we will focus on high graphics quality settings and will try to find out what CPU speed is sufficient for comfortable gameplay. We will also pay due attention to the budget processor models and overclocking efficiency.

Table of contents:

• Testbed and Methods
  
• Performance in Games
  
• Battlefield 2
  
• F.E.A.R.
  
• Serious Sam 2
  
• Quake 4
  
• Call of Duty 2
  
• Conclusion
  

A few days ago we posted an article covering a detailed test session of 28 processors in the latest gaming applications (for details see our review called Contemporary CPUs and New Games: No Way to Delusions!). This article allowed us once again to make our conclusions about the processor performance in contemporary games and the best CPU choice for gamers (thanks to our article a lot of AMD fans out there got one more reason to be proud). However, the obtained results caused some concerns about their actual value. The thing is that having analyzed the results obtained in the latest gaming titles, a lot of questions arose, which we couldn’t answer immediately. Firstly, we have pointed out that the tests in gaming applications following our well-established time-proven methodology are somewhat synthetic. The gaming settings we used during our CPU test session would never actually be used by the real gamers. That is why the number we obtained are very far away from what the gamers would observe during real gaming experience. Why don’t we test the CPUs with the more realistic gaming settings then, when the image quality is adjusted so that the gamer could get a nice picture and at the same time enjoy acceptable fps rate ensuring comfortable experience. We decided to give it a try.

Secondly, the main conclusion drawn from the last article was the fact that the CPU speed doesn’t actually matter that much during actual gameplay. We could clearly see that contemporary 3D shooters require a powerful graphics subsystem in the first place. As for the CPUs, contemporary games do not take real advantage of the potential of high-speed processors. However, despite all those great conclusions one question remained unanswered: what CPU would be sufficient for comfortable gaming experience. In the previous article we tested high-end and mainstream processors. All of them performed well enough. Now, hoping that we could finally get to find some real losers, we decided to include a few value CPU models into our comparative test session. So, our second goal would be to see if the Value and Budget CPUs can actually do well in the latest gaming applications.

In other words, we felt like one article about the CPU performance in contemporary games was far not enough to cover all the interesting topics, so we would like to offer you the second part of our discussion on the matter. This investigation will help us to answer the question: what CPU of all the models available in the market today should be powerful enough to ensure comfortable and enjoyable gaming experience in the latest 3D shooters.