GTX 960 Gaming Performance
The AMD FX-8320E provided the best performance in Batman: Arkham Knight once overclocked to 4.6GHz, a frequency that afforded AMD's chip a rather large 21% performance increase over its stock configuration. Using DDR4-2133 memory, the Core i3-6100 matched the Core i3-4360 and boosting the memory speed to 3000MHz only netted an extra 4% performance.
The FX-8320E's average frame rate performance isn't bad in Metro Redux but the 1% and 0.1% frame time performance is. Meanwhile the Core i3-6100 offered a minor performance bump over the Core i3-4360 and wasn't a great deal faster with the DDR4-3000 memory.
Hitman: Absolution is another game where the FX-8320E really struggles and even with the 4.6GHz overclock it fails to match the i3-4360. Again, the Core i3-6100 is only marginally faster than the 4360 and DDR4-3000 offers no performance gains.
We have yet another game where the FX-8320E fails to keep pace with the i3-4360 and we found again that the i3-6100 only offers a minor performance bump over the 4360 while DDR4-3000 has little to offer in the way of extra performance over DDR4-2133.
The AMD FX-8320E clawed its way back in during Crysis 3 though its 0.1% frame time data wasn't good. Interestingly, when coupled with DDR4-2133 memory the i3-6100 was slightly slower than the i3-4360, albeit by a single frame. However, armed with the high-speed 3000MHz memory the i3-6100 almost matched the i5-4430.
Battlefield 4 doesn't tell us much with all processor configurations delivering virtually the same performance when using the GeForce GTX 960.
Thief has some interesting results for us to look at. First, the Core i3-6100 performed considerably better with the high speed DDR4-3000 memory, particularly when looking at the 1% and 0.1% frame time data. Meanwhile, the DDR4-2133 memory performance was similar to that of the i3-4360. It was interesting to see that the 4.6GHz overclock of the FX-8320E didn't boost the average frame rate much but it did have a significant impact on the 0.1% frame time performance.
The Grand Theft Auto V performance of the non-overclocked AMD FX-8320E wasn't great when looking at the average frame rate. The 1% frame time result wasn't spectacular either, though the 0.1% result of 59fps wasn't bad. The Core i3 and Core i5 processors all delivered very similar performance.
Testing with Middle-earth Shadow of Mordor wasn't favorable for the FX-8320E, which when overclocked to 4.6GHz still struggled to keep pace with the i3-4360. The i3-6100 benefited from the fast DDR4-3000 memory and was able to overtake the i5-4430.
Total War: Attila totaled the overclocked AMD FX-8320E, and even with the 4.6GHz overclock it was still considerably slower than the Intel competition.