System Builder Marathon, August 2012: Alternative $2000 Gaming PC

Benchmark Results: DiRT 3

This quarter's original $2000 build revealed an odd DiRT 3 performance result that we thought might be associated with memory bandwidth. Equipped with four channels of DDR3-2133, that same configuration again takes leadership in DiRT 3’s High Quality preset using medium resolutions.

But those aren’t the target screen sizes for today’s test. Today's SLI-equipped alternative build charges through 2560x1600 and 5760x1080, which the original $2000 machine barely passes.

Thomas Soderstrom is a Senior Staff Editor at Tom's Hardware US. He tests and reviews cases, cooling, memory and motherboards.