Results: Far Cry 3
On more than one occasion, I've noticed that Don's less expensive machines outperform mine in Far Cry 3 at 1920x1080, regardless of differences in hardware, drivers, or game updates. Though he might get credit for a slightly better CPU overclock, I'm still not certain how he manages to trump me.
On the other hand, my higher-end graphics card does a wonderful job of outpacing his once we switch to triple-display resolutions.
My machine plays through 4800x900 smoothly, but gets a little choppy at our highest Far Cry 3 settings and a 5760x1080 resolution. Don’s $1200 machine appears to need overclocking for smooth game play at 4800x900. And Paul likewise gets choppy at his targeted 1920x1080. That’s because the delta between average and minimums can be over 40% on the map used for our test.