As mentioned, our frame-time measurements come from Fraps, which isn't necessarily ideal given the work that happens during the CrossFire pipeline, and where Fraps derives its data. So, we wanted to at least run a second title to gauge whether the numbers and "feeling" aligned. Charting these values tells us more than the worst frame time; it adds how often and where they're occurring during the benchmark.


The benchmark that seems best-optimized for Intel's platform, Skyrim already appears devastating to AMD's FX-8350 at a mere 1920x1080. We're hoping that this artifact is a little easier to tolerate in an RPG, but spikes above 70 ms are certainly jolts you can "feel" while you're playing.


The FX-8350 gets hammered even harder at 4800x900, and the difference between AMD and Intel CPUs tells us that the graphics subsystem isn't to blame. Regardless of where Fraps takes its measurement, we simply cannot ignore the notably-higher spikes on AMD's flagship.


Both the AMD and Intel platforms fail our 50 ms upper limit at 5760x1080, at least when the game is set to the High quality preset. Somehow, the Core i7-3770K ducks in under 50 ms throughout the test using Ultra quality settings, showing far smaller spikes, even as its average frame time increases.
- Chasing Bottlenecks To Eyefinity (But Not Beyond)
- Test Settings And Benchmarks
- Results: 3DMark, Aliens Vs. Predator, And Metro 2033
- Metro 2033, Second By Second
- Results: Battlefield 3, F1 2012, And Skyrim
- Battlefield 3, Frame By Frame
- Skyrim, Frame By Frame
- Power And Efficiency
- Can AMD's FX Keep Up With Its Radeon HD 7970?
I disagree. What's needed is even stronger push on the developers to use more than four cores, effectively, not some 100% load on one core and 10% on the other five cores.
I disagree. What's needed is even stronger push on the developers to use more than four cores, effectively, not some 100% load on one core and 10% on the other five cores.
I thought more cores were for multi-tasking, as in having multiple programs running simultaneously. It would suck to turn on BF3 and everything else running on my PC simply shut down because the CPU is under 100% utilization. How would i be able to play BF3 while streaming/playing some HD content on my TV that's hooked up to my same computer.
single core performance... look up some other benchmarks, where they use itunes to encode things, or when i believe winzip went from single core to multicore, it shows a GREAT difference more cores can do to performance.
the problem is that few games and few programs really scale, sure, pro applications almost always take advantage of whatever you put in them, but consumer, different story.
more cores can offer more multitasking, but they also allow the load to be shifted from one core to all 4 cores and get over all more performance when properly coded.
woulda liked to see how a 3570k does against the fx8350 running the same cfx setup. impo, the price/perf woulda tipped further in favor of intel in configs like this.
lastly, woulda liked some newer games like sleeping dogs, far cry3, max payne 3 in the benches instead of the ol' bf3 single player. i hear bf3 sp doesn't stress cpus that much. may be bf3 skewed the benches in favor of amd as much as skyrim favored intel.
Why not just use two computers?
If you could buy $4 RAM instead of $40 RAM, but the $4 RAM made your system 50% slower, would you buy it? No, because it would make your $1000 PC perform like a $500 PC.
You can only do per-component value when you're only comparing one component. In this case, the graphics cards and CPUs were being tested as a pairing (just like the title says).
Again, I enjoy reading the article. Get ready for b!tching by fanboies.... Tom.
No need. My sister's FX 8350 kicks my 3570k's ass at 4.2 ghz consistently in most benchmarks. We both run GTX 480's
what world do you live in? I payed 200 euro for my i5 3570k while my sister's 8350 cost ~ 160 and gets better performance.
Why don't use AMD FX 6x00? They are cheaper, almost 60€ in my country. You have compared AMD FX 4x00 already, but i don't see any review or article using a FX6x00 and i think it's the sweet spot for an all-in-one PC (game and work, with 8GB at least of RAM).
Sorry for my english.
Your processor is only as good as the Programming that supports it, and Intel pays developers to use code that supports it and that is missing on AMD's architecture.
Can you run the whole test again with a $200 intel quadcore
and ditch the old DX 9 game engines , too?