AMD FX 8120 + Geforce GTX 680 Gaming Performance

Gaming with Bulldozer processors always seems to stir up quite a bit of debate when it comes to discussing performance. Often times I have found that this results in discussions being massive heaps of opinion and emotion, rather than consisting of any actual real-world data. This has happened so frequently that it seems many are now passing this emotion and opinion off as fact. This has created much confusion to those actually seeking legitimate information about these processors, to say the least. Due to such confusion, I decided to buy one of these processors and get some first-hand experience with it, overclock it, and record some gaming performance data. My goal is not to say X processors is better or worse than Y processor. But rather, the goal here is to hopefully provide some useful information to those curious about how these processors perform in games, and what to realistically expect from them.


Test System:

CPU: AMD FX 8120 - 4823Mhz
MOTHERBOARD: ASUS Sabertooth 990FX
MEMORY: 16GB - Corsair Vengeance PC3 12800 - 1692Mhz
PSU: Seasonic X750 Gold
GPU: MSI GeForce GTX 680 - Boosting to 1202Mhz
HDD/SDD: Crucial 128GB M4 SSD and Seagate Barracude 1TB 7200RPM HDD.
SOUNDCARD: Creative Sound Blaster X-FI Titanium
MONITOR: Acer 23" 1080p S232HL
OS: Win7 Ultimate - 64bit
COOLING: Custom Loop - EK Supreme HF CPU Block, Koolance VID-NX680 GPU Block, Swiftech MCP655 Pump, Danger Den Monsoon D5 Bay Reservoir, XSPC RX480 Rad, and 4 Scythe GT AP-15s in Push.
Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show) (Test system pictured, minus the second GTX 680, as it is off to MSI RMA)

Performance Data:

Battlefield 3 - SP Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)
Battlefield 3 - MP Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)
Crysis2 - SP Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)
Moderm Warfare 3 - SP Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)
Modern Warfare 3 - MP (note that multiplayer has a required 90 fps cap) Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)
Skyrim Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)
World of Warcraft - Cataclysm Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)
Risen 2 Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)
Dirt 3 Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)
Metro 2033 - Max, DX11 Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)
Metro2033 - High, DX10 Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)
Last updated 6/11/2012 @ 7 PM: More data to come.
Edited by svthomas - 6/11/12 at 6:32pm

Reserved

Cannot test SLI until the other 680 gets back from RMA. I unfortunately had one go south on me before I could do the testing. Hopefully MSI gets out a replacement fairly quick.

Yeah, honestly I expected mw3 to not really stress a 680 all that much, as mw3 is essentially mw2 with new maps/skins... In this case, that means the limiting factor _should_ be something else, this could be a fps cap or vsync (which isn't the case, here) or other hardware in the system, such as a CPU, etc., as they/it will need to work harder to keep up with the under-stressed GPU.