3D Games

Before we move on to the gaming performance graphs we would like to remind you that to test processor performance in games we use low resolution of 1024x768. this low resolution allows us to focus on the “gaming” CPU performance and eliminate the GPU influence on the results, as the performance of this particular component is the primary determinative in real games.

The performance of Phenom X3 may differ in different games, but nevertheless, we can single out two types of behavior this processor demonstrates in gaming applications. In games, which performance is not very scalable when we have more than two processor cores (in other words, those that do not fully support quad-core processors), Phenom X3 demonstrates poor results. New triple-core processors lose to Athlon 64 X2 6400+, not to mention Intel processors in Quake 4, Half Life 2 Episode Two, and, strangely enough, Crysis.

However, there is also another group of games including Unreal Tournament 3, World in Conflict and Lost Planet: Extreme Condition. Performance in these games depends a lot on the number of available computational cores that is why the new Phenom X3 processors do not look that bad here. At least they do not yield to the top Athlon 64 X2 and sometimes are even capable of racing against Core 2 Duo CPUs not only from the previous generation, but also the new Core 2 Duo E7200.