Benchmark Results: Far Cry 2
It is immediately obvious that Far Cry 2 is much easier for the PC to run than Crysis. It’s interesting that at stock speed, the CPU appears to be limiting the frame rates to just under 90 FPS, but when the CPU is overclocked, there is a more significant performance spread.
Cranking both the visual detail to the Ultra High setting and AA to 4x, even the stock system is able to deliver average frame rates of 76 FPS at 1920x1200. Once again, the benchmark seems to be CPU-limited, as the spread between different resolutions is definitely wider when overclocked.
At such high-performance levels, however, the results are almost irrelevant. Indeed, this system can handle far Cry 2 at maximum detail and high AA without breaking a sweat, even at stock speeds.
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I wonder why this system builder marathon was limited to Micro-ATX cases. Is there a general trend towards these things or what? I'm looking to build a whole new system soon and I can't see any reason to go Micro-ATX.
I don’t think it’s a trend, think of it as more of a challenge. Some people don’t want to have a giant full/mid tower sitting next to them.
Right, I don't mind that at all, so I'll stick to a normal case when assembling my next system. Thanks!
Nice challenge but what's the point when the system dies a couple of months down the line due to shorten life span of all components as a result of high temps. Then you spend another $1300?
I can't remember if it was this or one of the other SBM articles this month, but they mentioned something about these PCs being LAN boxes - if so heat is going to be even more of an issue (much higher ambient temps, cases right next to each other) so this system would be pretty unviable.
I know that my PC runs as much as 10 degress hotter in that environment - if it's in the low 90s on the CPU and at the limit of GPU stability already, another ten degrees will see it constantly throttling, making errors or shutting down.
Assuming that we were building a full ATX system, what would have been the motherboard of choice for this PC?
Can I also remind everyone that these articles are irrelevent on this side of the Atlantic? Intel and nVidia prices in particular are far, FAR lower in the US - such a system would be over 30% more over here! SLI GTX260 for £200 my arse!