CPU Performance
The maximum performance we extracted from the HIS R9 290X iPower IceQ X² Turbo 4GB when using the ultra-quality settings was 82fps and this was achieved with Core i7 and Core i5 processors. The AMD FX series also performed well, as the FX-8350 averaged 79fps and the FX-6350 hit 76fps to match the low-end Core i3-4130.
The quad-core FX-4320 struggled with just 67fps, but it was fast compared to the A8-7600 quad-core APU which allowed for just 52fps.The Haswell-based Pentium G3320 averaged just 51fps and the Celeron G1820 was even slower with 45fps.
The most shocking results probably came from the octa-core Phenom II X6 1100T which averaged just 49fps, while the quad-core X4 980 was a fraction faster with 50fps. AMD's new AM1 budget platform didn't fare so well either with 23fps, while the A4-4000 dual-core APU averaged even less with 22fps, on par with Intel's Celeron J1800.
Despite the vast differences in performance between the various processor types the Core i7-4770K showed no change in performance when clocked at 2.50GHz opposed to 4.50GHz.
Although the AMD FX-8350 shows a slight increase in performance when overclocked, we expected to see more than an 8% boost in frame rate when going from 2.50GHz to 4.50GHz.