System Builder Marathon, Dec. 2011: System Value Compared

Benchmark Results: F1 2010

F1 2010 appears CPU-bound by all three builds when using its High Quality preset, even with the $2400 PC’s Core i7-2600K pushed all the way to 4.6 GHz.

Muscling past that bottleneck requires cranking the graphics details up to Ultra Quality and adding 8x AA, where GPU performance is finally reflected at 2560x1600.

The $1200 PC is always held back by its FX-6100, while the $600 PC is limited by its single Radeon HD 6870. If only someone would combine the $600 machine's CPU with the $1200 machine’s graphics subsystem (though you'd need a better motherboard, too, since the H61 Express-based platform doesn't accommodate CrossFire).

Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom is a Senior Staff Editor at Tom's Hardware US. He tests and reviews cases, cooling, memory and motherboards.