Benchmark Results: Crysis 2
Crysis 2 is a stretch for these low-power graphics processors, so we’ll add a low 1024x600 resolution to the mix. Let’s see how these products perform:
The A8-3500M APU and built-in 6620G achieve a playable 30 frames per second (FPS) average at 1024x600. While that's is a relatively low resolution, Crysis 2 is a very demanding and visually attractive title, so we won’t belittle this achievement. The Intel HD Graphics 3000 can only manage 23 FPS on average, with a 16 FPS minimum at this resolution.
The discrete Radeon HD 6630M does better though, and is able to offer 30 FPS at 1280x800. At 1600x900, nothing is close to playable.
AMD’s Dual Graphics does not work here. Crysis 2 is a DirectX 9 game, and Dual Graphics only works on DirectX 10 and 11 titles. It is disturbing that, with Dual Graphics enabled, performance drops to less than you’d see from a single discrete GPU. The AMD representative we talked to said that this is not what we should be seeing, as the driver is supposed to revert to the discrete card in DirectX 9. Hopefully this is a driver error that it can fix.
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Hmm. Mixed feelings about this one. One the one hand, it's less impressive than I wished for. On the other, it's obvious AMD has done some good work here, in more than one direction.
Ultimately, We'll have to wait and see what Trinity has to offer to give the final word. Here's hoping Bulldozer throws a serious punch. I'm sure we'd all like to see AMD back in the game, and not just in notebook space.
"Now, to be brutally honest, AMD’s fastest Phenom II processors fare better against Core 2 Quads than modern Core i7s", dont know about this one i just upgraded from a phenom 2 x2 550 to a x4 955 (dirt cheap where i live) and the performance increase is huge, glad i did not wasted my money on a sandy bridge build. For me the 955 is more than enough and coupled with a decent gfx card you wont need more, proof of that is in this article as well. Graphics is not going to get better until the next gen consoles are released, so just not worth spending money on the latest tech
If you want us to look at this as the end of entry level discrete GPUs for light gaming, how about comparing it to the GPU running at its real speed? Once you have a real price for an APU+M/B you can put it up against a similar spec/price CPU+GPU+M/B to see how they compare.
If the transcoding performance was worth having (and supported by Windows 7 in Media Center) then this could be an HTPC route...
Chaps, you are wasting your time commenting on the UK version of the article. All the comments are over on the US version.
Why they cant pull the 'shared' article comments together I dont know.
Seems like the Turbo CORE was simply turned off... Perhaps it needs more than enabling it in the BIOS. Like in case of Cool'n'Quiet, that you has had to enable in Windows, as well?
Seems like the Turbo CORE was simply turned off... Perhaps it needs more than enabling it in the BIOS. Like in case of Cool'n'Quiet, that you has had to enable in Windows, as well?
Yeah, by selecting Minimal Power Management in XP or Balanced in Vista/7.
Chaps, you are wasting your time commenting on the UK version of the article. All the comments are over on the US version. Why they cant pull the 'shared' article comments together I dont know.
I've often thought the same..I wish all the UK and US comments could be combined. I discovered the duality by accident, and also noticed that the UK version of the article has 4 comments, whereas the US had 4 pages. I am grateful for all this tech news..I just wish the comments section could be combined. Also, if they could send the spammers to Mars..that would be a nice bonus.