CPU Performance

The above data suggests that Tomb Raider isn't particularly CPU-intensive, as our Core i7-3770K offered virtually identical performance when clocked at 2.5GHz as it did at 4.0GHz. In fact, an 80% increase in clock speed to 4.5GHz resulted in a frame rate boost of only 1%.

The AMD FX-8350 tells a similar story as the 80% clock speed increase accounted for just 4% more performance.

When testing a broad range of CPUs, we found that most recent quad-core or better chips gave about the same performance of 77 to 79fps, while the Athlon II X4 640 fell to 71fps, the Core i3-3220 hit 69fps and the dual-core Phenom II and Athlon II chips were 20% slower than their higher-end counterparts, but still served playable performance.