Gaming Performance

Tom Clancy's The Division was tested using the low-level DX12 API and this should help out the lower-end processors. Despite testing a very demanding section of the game where frame rates are pushed quite low at times, the G4560 seemed to hang in there. Performance was much the same with the GTX 1050 Ti while the Pentium processor was just 9% slower than the 6700K with the GTX 1060.

Like most strategy games with an overhead camera angle, Civilization IV is extremely CPU demanding. Even with the GTX 1050 Ti, the G4560 dropped a few frames behind the Core i5 and i7 processors, something else we haven't see in any other game.

As a result, with the GTX 1060 installed the G4560 slips 21% behind the 7350K and almost 30% behind the Core i5-7600K.

Our Overwatch bot match test uses all eight threads of the 6700K so needless to say this is a rather CPU intensive benchmark. Nonetheless, the G4560 pushed the GTX 1050 Ti to its limit, never allowing the frame rate to drop below 90.

The Pentium processor also handled the GTX 1060 quite well and it was the minimum frame rate that was most impressive here. As we have seen time and time again at 1080p, the GTX 1080 proved too much for the budget dual-core processor.

Gears of War 4 is a game that loves to gobble up cores and we see the result of that here. The G4560 does well with the GTX 1050 Ti in charge but once we move to the 1060 it starts to fall behind.

Battlefield 1 is possibly the most significant title we are testing and not just because it's hugely popular. This game is a CPU killer and it has had many Core i5 owners scrambling for an upgrade.

Before you get on a megaphone shouting about multiplayer testing, hear me out.

First, accurately testing multiplayer performance is nearly impossible. For a single test you can get an idea of what a system is capable of but it's impractical to then compare those results to something else. Second, the section of the single player campaign that we use for testing is extremely CPU intensive, in fact it replicates the multiplier CPU usage. So these numbers should be true for the multiplayer portion of the game as well.

At 1080p the G4560 provided a similar experience to the higher-end processors when paired with the GTX 1050 Ti. It starts to fall away quite a bit with the GTX 1060 and then ends up miles behind with the GTX 1080.

Something that I found odd was the fact that the G4560 and 7350K actually hit lower minimums with the GTX 1080 than they did with the 1060 in this title. That doesn't seem possible but these results are based on the average of six runs and the GTX 1080 consistently saw lower minimums with these dual-core processors.

Total War: Warhammer might offer low-level API support but this strategy game is still hogs the CPU due to the vast amount of units present when heading into battle. The G4560 does well when paired with the GTX 1050 Ti but falls well behind once we ramp up the rendering power with the GTX 1060. Here it trailed the Core i3-7350K by 24% and the 6700K by 39%.

That said, the game was still playable but you would be wasting your money here as there was a heap of untapped performance.