Choosing a Gaming CPU at 1440p: Adding in Haswell
by Ian Cutress on June 4, 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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jabber - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link
4.6 million on Steam? Is that basically the current total subscriber level?Wow I knew gamers were a minority but that's scary. Okay I know not all gamers are on Steam but...
Amazed that companies even bother for so few. Say it isn't so!
jeffkibuule - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link
Pretty sure that's current ACTIVE users.jabber - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link
I'd hope so.chizow - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link
Yeah it has to be, a few years ago Steam had announced they have some 25 million users, it was actually very close to the individual numbers for 360 and PS3 at the time. Valve keeps their total #s and sales really close to the vest though, so it's hard to get numbers out of them unless they are announcing milestones.Rattlepiece - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link
4.6 million was the current amount of users online when the article was written. http://store.steampowered.com/stats/Steam has more than 55 million active users.
medi02 - Wednesday, June 5, 2013 - link
I wonder what they mean by "active".Most likely it's a number of users with steam client running.
Well, it runs idle for more than a year for me, yet I'm an "active" user I guess...
UltraTech79 - Saturday, June 22, 2013 - link
Why the hell are you running steam idle for over a year and not using it then?FlushedBubblyJock - Monday, April 6, 2015 - link
Worse than that, he shows the rez stats, and we have 30% at 1080p, and less than 5% at higher rez, and yet he totally ignores and blows off the 65% that are below 1080p.He pretends they don't even exist. Must be tough looking so far down the nose at what you'd prefer not to see or notice.
Amazing "accuracy" as usual, as he immediately rambles off into his personal fantasy about multiple screens "gaining"...
R O F L
Please apply for politics or news.
trajan2448 - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link
Still publishing Crossfire numbers as legit, despite multiple sites showing numerous runt frames which never reach the screen? This is disingenuous, to say the least.dsumanik - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link
What's more disengenuous is the haswell review. Glowing review of an incremental more of the same from intel.This article actually recommends a 2500 k.
That says it all!