Low-Detail Benchmarks
Crysis 3 is a predominantly GPU-bound title that requires a DirectX 11-capable card to even launch. So, we weren't able to test boards as entry-level as Nvidia's GeForce 210. Based on what we were able to benchmark though, we can safely assure you that it wouldn't have offered playable performance anyway.
For the following baseline benchmarks, we selected the Low detail preset, Medium textures, and 4x AF. Motion Blur and Lens Flares were disabled, as was Antialiasing.
The Radeon HD 6450 and 6670 DDR3 are unplayable, while a modest GeForce GT 630 GDDR5 falls just under our 30 FPS minimum frame rate target. Everything else we're testing appear platform-limited, judging by the similar minimum and average frame rates in our sequence. This isn't bad, considering that Crysis 3 is still pretty impressive-looking at its lowest detail settings.
When we look at frame rates over time, we see a temporary drop in performance affecting our minimum frame rate number at the end of our benchmark. The funny thing is that there's nothing particularly interesting happening during the test to make this happen (no room full of bad guys or massive explosions). So, the reason for that drop is unclear.
The consecutive frame variance appears high, but only the Radeon HD 6670 DDR3 hits 20 ms, and it's unplayable due to low frame rates anyway.
Now, we'll turn the resolution up to 1920x1080:
The GeForce GT 630 is no longer able to provide playable performance. Now, it takes a Radeon HD 7700- and GeForce GTX 650-class card to maintain at least 30 FPS (although there's a bit more spread between the average frame rates).
We see the same strange dip at the end of our test in the frame rate over time chart. The impact is less dramatic though, since only a couple of the cards we're testing push much past 30 FPS anyway.
Most of the frame rate variance is lower at 1920x1080 than it is at 1280x720. Only the GeForce GT 630 and Radeons 6450 and 6670 DDR3 encounter relatively high variance. But because their frame rates are so low, that's an irrelevant point.
