And now begins the round of gaming benchmarks. First up is Far Cry 2, Metro 2033, and Just Cause 2.
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| Far Cry 2 |
| DX10 Gaming Performance |
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Like the original, FarCry 2 is one of the more visually impressive games to be released on the PC to date. Courtesy of the Dunia game engine developed by Ubisoft, FarCry 2's game-play is enhanced by advanced environment physics, destructible terrain, high resolution textures, complex shaders, realistic dynamic lighting, and motion-captured animations. We benchmarked the graphics cards in this article with a fully patched version of FarCry 2, using one of the built-in demo runs recorded in the Ranch Map. The test results shown here were run at various resolutions and settings.
Systems with this level of processing and graphics firepower typically make mincemeat of older DX10 benchmarks, and indeed, the Fangbook delivers here. The system’s CPU/GPU combo can’t quite keep pace with systems running the GTX 680M and CrossFire/SLI setups, but otherwise it holds its own. In the lower resolution run, it obliterated the iBuypower system, which is a little surprising.
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| Metro 2033 |
| DX11 Gaming Performance |
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Metro 2033 is your basic post-apocalyptic first person shooter game with a few rather unconventional twists. Unlike most FPS titles, there is no health meter to measure your level of ailment, but rather you’re left to deal with life, or lack there-of more akin to the real world with blood spatter on your visor and your heart rate and respiration level as indicators. The game is loosely based on a novel by Russian Author Dmitry Glukhovsky. Metro 2003 boasts some of the best 3D visuals on the PC platform currently including a DX11 rendering mode that makes use of advanced depth of field effects and character model tessellation for increased realism.
In this DX11 title, multi-GPU systems clearly dominate, while most systems with a lone GPU struggle to post playable framerates. However, the Fangbook can hack it--albeit barely--at a resolution of 1920x1080 with the in-game features turned up.
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| Just Cause 2 |
| DX10.1 Gaming Performance |
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Just Cause 2 was released in March 2010, from developers Avalanche Studios and Eidos Interactive. The game makes use of the Avalanche Engine 2.0, an updated version of the similarly named original. It is set on the fictional island of Panau in southeast Asia, and you play the role of Rico Rodriquez. We benchmarked the graphics cards in this article using one of the built-in demo runs called Desert Sunrise. The test results shown here were run at various resolutions and settings. This game also supports a few CUDA-enabled features, but they were left disabled to keep the playing field level.
The Fangbook breezed through the Just Cause 2 benchmark, delivering impressive 116.45 and 186.22 FPS at high and low resolutions, respectively. Our system turned in scores surpassing those of some multi-GPU systems, and at the 1280x720 resolution it actually posted the second-best score of the group.
