CPU Performance
Above we see that Tribes: Ascend utilizes four cores, which was to be expected given that Hi-Rez Studios recommends running the game with a quad-core processor.
Those with a Sandy Bridge Core i7 and a high-end graphics card might want to consider overclocking for maximum performance. Jumping 30% from 3.50GHz to 4.50GHz we saw a 10% increase in frame rate, which is fairly substantial.
Strangely, while the i7-2600K got faster as we overclocked it this was not the case with the FX-8150. Rather, this processor seemed to basically hit full stride at 3.50GHz were it averaged 75fps, while boosting speeds to 4.5GHz only raised the frame rate by 2fps to 77fps – the same result produced by the i7-2600K at just 2.50GHz.
The i7-3960X unsurprisingly topped our CPU graph, followed by the i7-2600K and i5-2500K. The old i7-920 still holds its own, while the FX-6200 is AMD's fastest entrant, narrowly besting the Phenom II X4 980, which outperformed the FX-8150. The dual-core Athlon II X2 and Phenom II X2 processor performed poorly at 57fps and 60fps.