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.
DOOM 3 has some level of video card dependence, but our latest demo files try to take it out of consideration. That is definitely not good news for the Celeron D 351, as DOOM 3 takes no prisoners and shows AMD with a huge lead over Intel in the value sector. This performance gap is truly enormous, relatively speaking, and there is definitely something about the Celeron D architecture that DOOM 3 simply does not like. While the Sempron is hardly a performance champion, the 92 fps score of the Sempron 3400+ is exceptional for its class. Once again, the smaller L2 cache of the Sempron 3300+ takes it down a few notches in DOOM 3 testing.
FarCry is a hot 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 benchmarking shows more of a standard result set, with the Celeron D 351 falling back from the Sempron competition, but not enough to be left in the veritable dust. Here the Celeron D models are at least in the same ZIP Code, and the Celeron D 351 manages to stay within 6 fps of the Sempron 3300+.
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 brings us back into DOOM 3 territory, and the Celeron D 351 is again sitting well back of the Sempron scores. This is a very large gap in terms of relative gaming performance, and the Sempron 3400+ almost doubles up on the framerate of the Celeron D 340.
RSS feed
