Maingear Potenza SS: A Cool, Quiet, SFF Gaming PC

With the standalone and synthetic benchmarks out of the way, we dug into some actual games. Many games have built-in benchmark utilities. We kicked off the Maingear Potenza’s game benchmarks with the ever-popular Far Cry 2 and a pair of post-apocalyptic hits.

Far Cry 2 DX10 Gaming Performance

When it comes to lush vegetation in a steaming, sinister jungle, no one pulls it off quite like Ubisoft does in its Far Cry series. Far Cry 2 uses high quality textures, complex shaders, and dynamic lighting to create a realistic environment.


The Maingear Potenza's score at 1024 x 768 is neck-and-neck with the Revolt's score at the same resolution, but the Potenza's frame rate at 1920 x 1080 put the system well behind the Revolt, due to the latter's higher powered graphics configuration.

Metro 2033 and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat DX11 Gaming Performance

Next, we took on some post-apocalyptic shooters. Metro 2033 is tough on even modern systems. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. also provides a challenge.

Metro 2033 is a game that makes excellent use of shadows. Dangers lurk in the dark, and the game’s depth of field adds to the sense that there, just beyond that rubble, something might be lying in wait. (And, of course, it is.)


This is a game that traditionally brought systems to their knees, but the Digital Storm Bolt and iBuypower Revolt recently turned up some solid numbers. The Potenza stays in the same range, but doesn't make any waves.

Call of Pripyat is the third installment of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series. We ran this test with all settings on Ultra and with DX11. As with our other benchmarks, we ran S.T.A.L.K.E.R. at three common display resolutions.


Although the Potenza put up respectable frame rates, it couldn't keep up with either of the systems it has been competing with in previous benchmarks. Still, the Potenza fares much better than most of the systems we've recently tested in this category.