Benchmark Results: Battlefield 3 And DiRT Showdown
Battlefield 3's single-player campaign is largely graphics limited, so the fact that all three platforms turn back similar results from our Radeon HD 7970 was to be expected. At 1920x1080 and Ultra quality settings, the graphics card plays more of a role in determining performance than any of these three CPUs.
We took some time to develop a DiRT Showdown test methodology that produces consistent numbers, and the results here suggest the game is, like Battlefield, fairly GPU-dependent. The Core i5 does establish a slight advantage, though it's hardly significant.