Choosing a Gaming CPU: Single + Multi-GPU at 1440p, April 2013
by Ian Cutress on May 8, 2013 10:00 AM ESTMetro 2033
Our first analysis is with the perennial reviewers’ favorite, Metro 2033. It occurs in a lot of reviews for a couple of reasons – it has a very easy to use benchmark GUI that anyone can use, and it is often very GPU limited, at least in single GPU mode. Metro 2033 is a strenuous DX11 benchmark that can challenge most systems that try to run it at any high-end settings. Developed by 4A Games and released in March 2010, we use the inbuilt DirectX 11 Frontline benchmark to test the hardware at 1440p with full graphical settings. Results are given as the average frame rate from a second batch of 4 runs, as Metro has a tendency to inflate the scores for the first batch by up to 5%.
One 7970
With one 7970 at 1440p, every processor is in full x16 allocation and there seems to be no split between any processor with 4 threads or above. Processors with two threads fall behind, but not by much as the X2-555 BE still gets 30 FPS. There seems to be no split between PCIe 3.0 or PCIe 2.0, or with respect to memory.
Two 7970s
When we start using two GPUs in the setup, the Intel processors have an advantage, with those running PCIe 2.0 a few FPS ahead of the FX-8350. Both cores and single thread speed seem to have some effect (i3-3225 is quite low, FX-8350 > X6-1100T).
Three 7970s
More results in favour of Intel processors and PCIe 3.0, the i7-3770K in an x8/x4/x4 surpassing the FX-8350 in an x16/x16/x8 by almost 10 frames per second. There seems to be no advantage to having a Sandy Bridge-E setup over an Ivy Bridge one so far.
Four 7970s
While we have limited results, PCIe 3.0 wins against PCIe 2.0 by 5%.
One 580
From dual core AMD all the way up to the latest Ivy Bridge, results for a single GTX 580 are all roughly the same, indicating a GPU throughput limited scenario.
Two 580s
Similar to one GTX580, we are still GPU limited here.
Metro 2033 conclusion
A few points are readily apparent from Metro 2033 tests – the more powerful the GPU, the more important the CPU choice is, and that CPU choice does not matter until you get to at least three 7970s. In that case, you want a PCIe 3.0 setup more than anything else.
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IanCutress - Wednesday, May 8, 2013 - link
I have those three CPUs in the 'ones I want for the next update'. I'm of course going to try and get them :)Ian
boulard83 - Thursday, May 9, 2013 - link
Thanks for the answer Ian ! :)whyso - Wednesday, May 8, 2013 - link
A8 for single gpu gaming with a 7970? Really? Just because your limited run of 4 games did not show anything wrong with the a8 does not mean that the a8 is going to perform properly with other games. Play Hitman with it and a 7970 or multiplayer BF3, then see if you are still going to recommend the a8.HalloweenJack - Wednesday, May 8, 2013 - link
anand have run BF3 with it and its perfectly fine.whyso - Wednesday, May 8, 2013 - link
Multiplayer?Spunjji - Wednesday, May 8, 2013 - link
What's with all the people in here who don't understand statistics?! You can't do scientifically rigorous multiplayer testing and produce useful results. The time required alone to test... the mind boggles.airmantharp - Wednesday, May 8, 2013 - link
Keep in mind that the article's title doesn't start with 'Statistical Analysis of...', but rather 'Choosing a...'.That's important. While you can't 'properly' benchmark multiplayer games, you can make reasonable inferences and use them to support your conclusions. The reality being exposed here is that Ian's benchmarks are really only useful for choosing a CPU for single-player games, not that there's a damn thing wrong with that.
However, it's not unreasonable for people to point out that the gaming situations requiring real CPU power to maintain playability are not covered in a 'Choosing a Gaming CPU' article.
felang - Wednesday, May 8, 2013 - link
+ 1,000,000frozen ox - Thursday, May 9, 2013 - link
In a multiplayer situation, you'll likely get similar ratios of performance, just lower average FPS. It's pretty easy to assume an X2 or i3 or other dual core is not going to hold up well, as these results support. But how in the hell are you supposed to have a baseline to compare systems in a multiplayer scenario? Do you have any idea what a cluster fuck that would be, even to compare just one game across only two systems, let alone as many as this review has?This review helps CPU buyers because they can look at these results, and multi-GPU setups, and see where the bottleneck will occur first. That doesn't mean there won't be more bottlenecks, but at least you can see which part of your system you should upgrade first.
felang - Wednesday, May 8, 2013 - link
Agree 100%. 4 games is not enough to reach a conclusion (dated ones at that). An A8 definitely is not going to cut it in more demanding games.