Benchmark Results: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Given its mainstream appeal, Skyrim was developed to scale across a broad range of platforms. Although its most demanding graphics settings easily slow down a single GeForce GTX 680, there is still plenty of host processor influence to extrapolate through 2560x1600.
At 1680x1050 and 1920x1080, lofty Turbo Boosted clock rates and a big shared L3 cache help propel the Core i7-3960X to a symbolic victory in a second consecutive game. The Core i7-3770K’s second-place finish is consistent across both resolutions, though it’s just as insignificant considering the narrow performance spread.
More troubling is the significant drop-off experienced by the two AMD CPUs. Even at 2560x1600 using the Ultra quality preset, an FX-8150 holds our GeForce GTX 680 back from achieving its average frame rate potential.