Heavy and super heavy kernels: a comparison of the latest Intel processors in the game Crysis

This text is a translation. The original text is available at: www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=499&pgno=0

The Intel Core2 processor line has become very successful. The processors of this line are based on the microarchitecture of the core, which provided huge improvements in performance and power saving. At the moment there are more than 30 different models of processors based on this microarchitecture. They are divided into several levels of performance:

Core 2 Extreme (QX Series) - High-end quad-core Core 2 processors with unlocked multipliers
Core 2 Extreme (X Series) - High-end dual-core Core 2 processors with unlocked multipliers
Core 2 Quad (Q Series) - Mainstream quad-core Core 2 processors
Core 2 Duo (E Series) - Mainstream Dual-Core Core 2 Processors
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So, let's begin.

Test computer configuration:

Processors:

Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 Price BOX: $ 1353
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450
Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Price BOX: $ 426
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Price BOX: $ 319
Intel Core 2 Duo E8300 Price BOX: $ 319
Intel Core 2 Duo E8200 / E2190 Price BOX: $ 241
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6800
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700 Price BOX: $ 368
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Price BOX: $ 307
Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 Price BOX: $ 330
Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 Price BOX: $ 233
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Price: $ 249
Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 / E6540 Price: $ 183
Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 Price: $ 198
Intel Core 2 Duo E6320 Price: $ 185

(Prices are listed on the online price list www.nix.ru on 04/20/2008.)

Motherboard
ASUS P5B-E Plus (Intel P965)

Memory
Two G.Skill 1GB PC2-6400 DDR2 modules
Two Kingston 512MB HyperX PC2-8500 DDR2 modules

Video card
ASUS EN8800GTS 512MB

HDD
750GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 SATA

OS
Microsoft Windows Vista 32-bit

Testing conditions:

Performance testing was performed in a Crysis game with 16x anisatropic filtering without anti-aliasing (unless otherwise indicated). The latest NVIDIA ForceWare 169.28 beta drivers used had a problem - they did not allow the resolution of 1920 x 1200 in the game. Therefore, testing was carried out at a resolution of 1920 x 1080.

The game has the following settings:

Texture Quality: High
Objects Quality: High
Shadows Quality: High
Physics Quality: High
Shaders Quality: High
Volumetric Effects Quality: High
Game Effects Quality: High
PostProcessing Quality: High
Particles Quality: High
Water Quality: High
Sound Quality: High

List of tested permissions:

1920 x 1080
1600 x 1200
1280 x 1024

At each setting, at least 5 tests were performed. Then the 3 closest results were taken and the frame rate was calculated from their average.

If the results were very different, the test was repeated again.

Crysis test results:

Crysis CPU Test 2 (Ice)

In Crysis 1.1, there are 2 CPU tests and one graphics processor test (GPU test). For this test, a test was chosen based on the second part of the game - Ice phase. This most intense part should reflect well the performance of processors in the most advanced games to which Crysis belongs.



Conclusion: even at a resolution of 1280 x 1024, the game begins to lack the power of the GPU, starting with 2.13GHz Core 2 Duo E6420 and beyond. Only the E6320, which runs at 1.86GHz, was slow enough for the low CPU performance to noticeably affect the frame. Starting from the E6850 and beyond, the game begins to totally lack the power of the GPU, even in conjunction with such a really fast graphics card as the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB.

The average frame rate, for example, 30 fps, does not mean that the game is constantly running at this resolution, because in some scenes the frame rate will be 30, and in some scenes it can fall to 3-4 frames per second. These results do not reflect the frame-rate set in the game, but the actual measured average.

Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/23846/