System Builder Marathon, August 2012: $2000 Performance PC

Features
By Thomas Soderstrom
published

Benchmark Results: Skyrim And StarCraft II

This quarter's higher GPU overclock helps out with performance when we use the High detail preset in Skyrim, at least until we get to 2560x1600. After that, there's little we can do to help the GeForce GTX 670 keep up with the GTX 680 used last time around.

Shifting up to the game's Ultra detail preset, the overclocked GeForce GTX 670 outpaces the stock GTX 680. That’s not exactly a fair comparison, since both cards can be overclocked.

StarCraft II deviates slightly from what we saw in Skyrim and DiRT 3 in that its highest-quality settings don’t clobber our new GeForce GTX 670. Last quarter's GeForce GTX 680 is only noticed once we get to 2560x1600. Of course, this is because our StarCraft test is largely CPU-bound.

Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom is a Senior Staff Editor at Tom's Hardware US. He tests and reviews cases, cooling, memory and motherboards.
124 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Darkerson
    Interesting setup. I would have favored a way beefier single GPU or a nice dual GPU setup, but I mainly only game, and dont do a lot of encoding or whatnot.
    Reply
  • The contest opens on August 20, 2012 9:00 PM PDT and closes on September 3, 2012 9:00 PM PDT.
    So... i notice now that it opens at August 20, not August 19 when the $500 SBM appeared. I submitted my entry at August 19 10:30 PM. So that means that i haven't entered into the sweepstakes, or did i? I am confused, cause only one entry can be accepted.
    Reply
  • Nice quality build! Enough said!
    Reply
  • trumpeter1994
    That has got to be one of the luckiest GTX 670s I've ever seen.
    Reply
  • sarinaide
    i5-3570k/i7-3770k
    Gigabyte G1 Assassin Z77
    120GB SSD
    500GB HDD
    2xGTX 670
    2x4GB DDR3 1866

    And still probably cheaper with obviously better performance.
    Reply
  • Crashman
    sarinaidei5-3570k/i7-3770kGigabyte G1 Assassin Z77120GB SSD500GB HDD2xGTX 6702x4GB DDR3 1866And still probably cheaper with obviously better performance.Probably not, unless you're only testing games. But we should probably test that anyway. Does anyone else want to see it?
    Reply
  • zander1983
    Ditch the BR Writer, get a BR combo drive and save yourself $60
    Reply
  • Crashman
    zander1983Ditch the BR Writer, get a BR combo drive and save yourself $60Sorry, I don't see any combo drives for $30 so the savings would be much less than $60. Plus, you'd lose BD-RE backup capability, which can be handy.
    Reply
  • sarinaide
    CrashmanProbably not, unless you're only testing games. But we should probably test that anyway. Does anyone else want to see it?
    It would be very interesting, the IvyBridge chips in productivity numbers hold quite well with the SB-E chips that is the only area which should be a contest.
    Reply
  • crisan_tiberiu
    16GB ram pointless imo. 2 TB 5400rpm hdd? ...i rather get a 1 TB 7200 rpm hdd. i7 3970k ... i rather get the i7 3770k. From theese i would squeeze in a gtx 680.
    Reply