DOOM 3 is a game that needs no introduction, and continues in a long line of id Software Quake and DOOM first-person shooters. This latest installment is one serious 3D game test, including potentially the highest-end graphics yet seen on the PC. It is also a different type of game benchmark, especially compared to Quake 3, as it has a greater reliance on the 3D video card for high-end framerate results. This makes it less-than an optimum current CPU performance test, but may still bear fruit as newer and faster processors make an appearance.
Now that we've moved to an enthusiast-level video card like the eVGA GeForce 7800 GTX KO, it's tougher for hardcore games like DOOM 3 to be video card limited, especially at the lower resolutions. The results here show Intel moving up fast, and the 3.46 GHz Pentium EE 955 almost outperforms the Athlon 64 X2 4800+ and has to settle for second place. DOOM 3 is also one of the few game benchmarks to show some level of multi-threading impact, from either the enhanced NVIDIA drivers or the game engine itself, and the scores for the HT-enabled Pentium EE 955 and 840 show a nice performance boost compared to the other dual core processors.
FarCry is a hot new first-person shooter that takes in-game graphics to the next level, although in a different direction than DOOM 3. Instead of darkness and confined spaces, FarCry places you outdoors, on bright sandy beaches, jungles or even on the water itself. This game gives our processors a different kind of a stress test, and rest assured that FarCry ranks up there with the very toughest 3D game benchmarks. For this test, we are using the full retail version, and the included in-game demo.
FarCry gets us back to the previous trends, and here the Pentium Extreme Edition 955 again finds itself at the top of the Intel peak, but is unable to put much of a dent in the AMD mountain. The newest Intel processor does manage to outpace the Athlon 64 X2 3800+ and give some competition to the Athlon 64 X2 4200+, but that's as far as it goes.
Half-Life 2 is the latest in a line of serious first-person shooters from Valve, and has really taken in-game graphics to the next level. This is a great opportunity to really push our processors to the limit, as well as providing a counterpoint to newer 3D games like DOOM 3. This is also a CPU-reliant game in many ways, making Half-Life 2 a game that rewards higher-end processors and systems.
Half-Life 2 benchmarking is much the same story, and even with 3.46 GHz clock and 1066 MHz bus speeds, the Pentium EE 955 does improve on the Intel-centric scores, but still can't match the Athlon 64 X2 for Half-Life 2 gaming performance.
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