Benchmark Results: DiRT 3

DiRT 3 stands in as a good representative of simulator titles. The A8-3870K can handle it at 1920x1080 with 2x MSAA at the Low detail preset.

DiRT 3 is another title that derives much of its performance from available memory bandwidth. Unfortunately, the overclocked A8-3870K’s best effort falls notably short of the Radeon HD 6670 DDR3.

The only significant difference between this test and the last one is added anti-aliasing (a notoriously bandwidth-dependent effect). It's probable that the APU's shared memory architecture is simply not as well-suited for throughput-intensive details as a discrete card.

The gap between discrete graphics and the APU is even clearer when we look at frame rates over time.