Benchmark Results: StarCraft II
Performance Target: 30 FPS Minimum
Finally, let’s consider StarCraft II, a real-time strategy game notorious for its processor dependency. We start with the 30 FPS minimum frame rate target.
Our minimum goal of achieving 30 FPS proves irrelevant, as the demanding benchmark we use pushes both of these CPUs to their limits. The Core i3's advantage is clear. There’s no point to running a second set of benchmarks targeting 40 FPS when we can’t keep these platforms over 16 FPS, regardless of settings or resolutions.
To the FX-4100’s credit, this is a very demanding benchmark, and most StarCraft games won't push a machine quite as hard. There are some custom maps that tax processor performance, though, so the benchmark's validity stands. If you're wondering why the frame rate climbs over time, that's because units are destroyed and removed, alleviating the load. Regardless of the caveats, Intel's Core i3-2100 shows itself superior in this title.