Results: Grid 2 And Far Cry 3
Based on an older engine, mid-range hardware normally blazes through Grid 2 using the game's High quality preset. Unfortunately, getting the Athlon 5350 down under a 25 W thermal envelope necessitated cutting the graphics resources needed to push ample frame rates, even in this mainstream title. We dropped below our previous low-water mark to test using Medium details.
Unable to get smooth gameplay in Grid 2, I pulled something older from the shelf and hoped it'd fare better. Far Cry 3 used to be a pretty tough title, so we dropped our lowest test standard from High to Low quality, yet failed again.