ASRock Rack C2750D4I Review: A Storage Motherboard with Management

As an interesting dynamic to our testing, it has been requested that we see how well the C2750 does in our discrete GPU benchmarks. The combination of a slower CPU and limited PCIe bandwidth will be the major culprit in almost all our benchmarks, although Tomb Raider is at least on an even keel. Most of our benchmarks show a 30+ FPS frame rate, if you are willing to pair a large GPU with the C2750D4I.  Again, we are currently testing other 25W platforms to provide more applicable competition for this platform.

F1 2013

First up is F1 2013 by Codemasters. I am a big Formula 1 fan in my spare time, and nothing makes me happier than carving up the field in a Caterham, waving to the Red Bulls as I drive by (because I play on easy and take shortcuts). F1 2013 uses the EGO Engine, and like other Codemasters games ends up being very playable on old hardware quite easily. In order to beef up the benchmark a bit, we devised the following scenario for the benchmark mode: one lap of Spa-Francorchamps in the heavy wet, the benchmark follows Jenson Button in the McLaren who starts on the grid in 22nd place, with the field made up of 11 Williams cars, 5 Marussia and 5 Caterham in that order. This puts emphasis on the CPU to handle the AI in the wet, and allows for a good amount of overtaking during the automated benchmark. We test at 1920x1080 on Ultra graphical settings.

Bioshock Infinite

Bioshock Infinite was Zero Punctuation’s Game of the Year for 2013, uses the Unreal Engine 3, and is designed to scale with both cores and graphical prowess. We test the benchmark using the Adrenaline benchmark tool and the Xtreme (1920x1080, Maximum) performance setting, noting down the average frame rates and the minimum frame rates.

During our Bioshock Infinite test there was a clear stutter during the benchmark that would make the game completely unplayable.

Tomb Raider

The next benchmark in our test is Tomb Raider. Tomb Raider is an AMD optimized game, lauded for its use of TressFX creating dynamic hair to increase the immersion in game. Tomb Raider uses a modified version of the Crystal Engine, and enjoys raw horsepower. We test the benchmark using the Adrenaline benchmark tool and the Xtreme (1920x1080, Maximum) performance setting, noting down the average frame rates and the minimum frame rates.

Tomb Raider is a game that seems to move almost entirely onto the GPU, not worrying much about the CPU or the DRAM attached to it.