Benchmark Results: DiRT 3
Performance Target: 30 FPS Minimum
DiRT 3 is another title that presents a moderate graphics workload, and consequently isn't really held back by our choice in processor. Only the dual-core A4-3400 APU lagged behind. Again, we don't expect to see much difference here.
All of our graphics cards manage playable performance at 1920x1080, and DiRT 3 deserves its reputation as a game that scales well with graphics hardware. None of the results are particularly telling of a trend one way or the other. Intel's CPU performs slightly better with the Radeon HD 6950, but again, that's nothing you'd pick up on while playing the game itself.
Performance Target: 40 FPS Minimum, 60 FPS Average
AMD's Radeon HD 6950 achieved our second goal at DiRT 3's highest detail settings (and with 8x MSAA applied) in the last test, so we won't re-test that board here.
We had to lower the resolution to 1440x900 in order for AMD's Radeon HD 5570 to make the cut, but its 6770 and 6850 handle 1080p without a problem. And although the bottom chart appears empty, all of the scores are above 60 FPS on both processors.
According to the minimum and average frame rates, Intel's Core i3-2100 has a slight advantage with the Radeon HD 5570 and 6850. Faced with such high frame rates, however, the benefit ends up less significant.
