I always tend to include game tests at medium resolutions to show the potential of a new CPU and/or platform. Even if this are not the so called real world scenarios, I try to avoid as much as possible reaching the GPU bottleneck. Otherwise it wouldn't matter as the outcome would be similar amongst many CPUs. Let's restest the games at 1280 x1024 resolution with high detail settings ( iso medium in the previous review ) and 1920 x 1080 res with everything maxed out.

As there are a lot of theories of disabling clusters in the CPU (motherboard bios permiting) that should increase the Instructions per clock why not test them in a few games. So we throw the 4/4 CPU in the mix.

Pull out the guns and blast them Mafiosi away with MAFIA II :

Mafia II slightly scales with raw processing power at the lower 1280 x 1024 resolution. At 1920 x 1080 high detail preset, there's hardly any difference between all the platforms. Logical as it's the GTX480 that can't keep up. Hardly any IPC gain, if any at all when running the FX-8150 at 4/4 cores. Ready for some zombie slashing ?

Frames per second are impressively different in this older Capcom game title. Benefitting heavily of the Intel architecture and it's raw processing power. The let's call them more refined AMD CPUs, still have more than enough power for a mega fluid game experience. At the maximum detail setting, the gaps get smaller, but it's no longer a secret that this game will render more FPS on an Intel based platform. As if your eyes could care less, as they can only spot 24FPS.

Capcoms Streetfighter IV, a Mortal Kombat I can push more buttons then you in a blink of an eye action game seems to use the new modules AMD CPU in a more efficient way. At the low resolution the FX CPU is ahead of the Gulftown and the 2500K. Weirdly enough the table turns when we up the resolution and detail level. Still a nice FPS advantage over the 1090T, yet the latter still manages to pump out more FPS then your brain can actually handle.

Lost Planet 2 was one of them you either love or hate it titles. Bringing nice DirectX11 to the gamers with incredible rendered monsters and landscapes. At the lowest tested resolution very small scaling, the Sandy Bridge based CPUs taking a nice lead. Similar outcome at the highest resolution, where the bottleneck is more graphics card orientated. Let's up the speed and go nuts in a Formula One car with Ubisofts latest sim title : Formula 1 2011.

Driving around the Monte Carlo track this game adores the current Intel CPU lineup. For the above test I used the timedemo, in game benchmark. Maybe not 100% accurate reflective for true performance, yet the raw cpu power is clearly visible. The FX CPU ain't bad at all, delivering plenty of FPS. Yet there are more affordable solutions out there, that do the same at a fraction of the cost.

Now two of AMD game titles :

Luckily Battlefield 3 arrived in due time for this follow up article. We ran the Swordbreaker mission and started Fraps once we stepped out of the armoured car, till the market place was completely cleaned of terrorists. The high detail preset was used for the single GPU tests at 1920 x 1080 resolution. We directly opted to go for possible daily overclocks to enhance the FX experience.

Battlefield 3 is on the AMDs preffered game title list. Meaning it's optimalised for it's new Bulldozer architecture. At 1920 x 1080 resolution all the platforms put out similar average FPS. Though with the minimum frames there's a nice boost over the previous Thuban CPUs.

Dirt 3 was tested with a ride at the Aspen track. A decent showing by the overclocked FX again, besting the more expensive Gulftown platform. The Sandybridge at a modest 4.5Ghz OC is just a tad better. All platforms scoring pretty close, lets increase the calculating power by overclocking the CPU and then adding a 2nd GPU...