S.T.A.L.K.E.R. CPU Performance Explored April 10, 2007 Brandon Sandman Bell

Introduction

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We’ll primarily be testing two configurations: a GeForce 7900 GTX SLI config, and a single GeForce 7900 GS. We’re still waiting on NVIDIA’s S.T.A.L.K.E.R. driver for the GeForce 8800 cards, which we’ve been told will bring improved GeForce 8800 GTX performance as well as adding GeForce 8 SLI support for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.. As it stands right now, a pair of 7900 GTX cards is slightly faster than a single GeForce 8800 GTX in our testing, although we expect that to change once NVIDIA’s new driver is ready.

By testing the GeForce 7900 GS and 7900 GTX SLI cards with CPUs ranging from the Athlon 64 X2 3600+ all the way up to the Core 2 Extreme, we should get a better idea of which CPU’s perform best with a high-end graphics setup, as well as a more conventional mainstream graphics config. That’s the goal at least.

Before we look into that though, we first want to examine the game’s multi-threading performance. According to the game’s readme, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. has been built with multi-threading in mind:

Dual Core and Performance
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl should utilize your dual and quad core processor natively and automatically. Running a dual or quad core processor is one of the best ways to improve performance.

Multi-threading performance

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First we’re going to test multi-core performance in a single GPU environment. We took a single GeForce 7900 GTX and hooked it up to the overclocked Core 2 Extreme processor, running with 1, 2, and 4 processing cores enabled:





Performance was indistinguishable between all three configs in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. with the single GeForce 7900 GTX card. Even at lower resolutions where the CPU is pushed harder we saw no performance change. You’d likely have to drop down to 800x600 to see any real benefits. What happens when two GeForce 7900 GTX cards are paired together for SLI though?






As you can see, we saw a slight performance boost when going from one processing core to two, 4% at 1280x1024 and 1600x1200 on the 7900 GTX SLI setup, The single-core Core 2 CPU just can’t keep the 7900 GTX SLI setup fed with data, although a 4% difference isn’t all that dramatic honestly. When moving from 2 cores to 4, performance was unchanged.

In other words, if you’ve got a single graphics card, chances are you won’t see much of a performance difference going from a single processing core to dual-core or quad-core. Faster graphics cards like the SLI setups and GeForce 8800 cards will show the best performance improvements.

System setup

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CPUs

Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 (2.93GHz)
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 (2.67GHz)
Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 (2.67GHz)
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 (2.4GHz)
Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 (2.13GHz)
Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 (1.8GHz)
Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 (1.8GHz)


AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ (3.0GHz)
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ (2.8GHz)
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ (2.6GHz)
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ (2.6GHz)
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ (2.5GHz)
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ (2.4GHz
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ (2.3GHz)
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ (2.2GHz)
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+ (2.1GHz)
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (2.0GHz)
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3600+ (1.9GHz)

EVGA nForce 680i motherboard
ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe

2GB Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400C4

NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GS 256MB
NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX 512MB
ForceWare 93.71

300GB Western Digital Caviar SE

Windows XP Professional SP2

Notes

We ran all of our tests with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. using the same system we used previously in games like Oblivion: we load up a predefined area (from a saved game) and use FRAPS to record performance. We repeat this test three times and take the average for our final result, rounding up when necessary. Rather than test a variety of areas, for this test we’re testing in an area that mixes in a fair amount of foliage with a wide open space. Basically our test involves running down a set path where the environment goes from a densely vegetated forest (which hurts frame rate) into a more open environment. Once again we’re using this user.ltx text file for our testing.

CPU Performance w/GeForce 7900 GS

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S.T.A.L.K.E.R. – Direc3D

Notes

As you can see, performance is the same across all CPUs tested with NVIDIA’s GeForce 7900 GS GPU at all resolutions. With dynamic lighting turned on, the burden clearly shifts so heavily on the GPU (in this case the 7900 GS) that CPU performance doesn’t play a large role in frame rate. But what happens when you drop in a faster graphics setup?

CPU Performance w/GeForce 7900 GTX SLI

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S.T.A.L.K.E.R. – Direc3D

Notes

At lower resolutions, the Core 2 CPUs definitely pull away from the Athlon 64 X2s. However, with AMD’s recent price cuts, the X2 CPUs are much more attractive. Whereas the Athlon 64 X2 6000+ previously was priced between the Core 2 E6600 and E6700, it’s now going squarely against the Core 2 Duo E6400, and here the X2 6000+ comes out on top, running 8% faster than the Core 2 E6600. The rest of the Athlon 64 CPUs equally come out ahead of the nearest-priced Core 2 processors.

As a result of AMD’s price cuts, the decision between Core 2 and Athlon 64 X2 has never been tougher – AMD really has sweetened the package quite a bit as a result of their latest pricing. The question is, how and when will Intel respond to this move?

Conclusion

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With a faster GPU setup CPU performance becomes more important. The GeForce 7900 GTX SLI config clearly ran best with the Core 2 processors, with the Core 2 Extreme X6800 delivering the best overall performance in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. thanks to its 2.93GHz clock speed. The nearest Athlon 64 X2 processor, the X2 6000+, trails the Core 2 Extreme by 8%. Clearly this isn’t a huge difference, but it\\s plausible this gap would increase with a faster setup like a pair of GeForce 8800 cards running in SLI. Of course, you can’t do this until NVIDIA releases their updated S.T.A.L.K.E.R. driver for GeForce 8 cards. Hopefully that should occur any day now.

Another factor to keep in mind is AMD’s latest X2 pricing. In light of AMD’s recent price cuts, the X2 CPUs really become excellent bargains, with CPUs starting right below $80. And when you compare the performance of AMD’s X2 CPUs to the nearest priced Intel equivalent, the AMD CPU always comes out ahead. Intel is expected to cut Core 2 prices later this month though, so the advantage AMD enjoys now may not last much longer.

Clearly our results today have shown which component is more important for delivering good performance in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: the graphics card. You’ll probably still want a fast processor for your other tasks and games, but clearly you don’t need the latest Athlon 64 FX or Core 2 Extreme for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.. The game doesn’t appear to take advantage of multi-threading yet, so quad-core CPUs will perform similarly to their dual-core equivalent, and of course, as you crank up the screen resolution you increase the burden on the GPU anyway.

So there you have it, our take on which system component is more important for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.. Up next we’ll be testing S.T.A.L.K.E.R. with the latest high-end cards. How much faster are the GeForce 8800’s in comparison to the GeForce 7 and Radeon X1900 cards? These are the types of questions we hope to answer in this article!