Bioshock Infinite Results

Is it finally time for you to upgrade your Sandy Bridge gaming rig?

Our Intel Skylake launch coverage is intense! Make sure you hit up all the stories and videos that are interesting for you!

Today marks the release of Intel's newest CPU architecture, code named Skylake. I already posted my full review of the Core i7-6700K processor so, if you are looking for CPU performance and specification details on that part, you should start there. What we are looking at in this story is the answer to a very simple, but also very important question:

Is it time for gamers using Sandy Bridge system to finally bite the bullet and upgrade?

I think you'll find that answer will depend on a few things, including your gaming resolution and aptitude for multi-GPU configuration, but even I was surprised by the differences I saw in testing.

Our testing scenario was quite simple. Compare the gaming performance of an Intel Core i7-6700K processor and Z170 motherboard running both a single GTX 980 and a pair of GTX 980s in SLI against an Intel Core i7-2600K and Z77 motherboard using the same GPUs. I installed both the latest NVIDIA GeForce drivers and the latest Intel system drivers for each platform.

  Skylake System Sandy Bridge System
Processor Intel Core i7-6700K Intel Core i7-2600K
Motherboard ASUS Z170-Deluxe Gigabyte Z68-UD3H B3
Memory 16GB DDR4-2133 8GB DDR3-1600
Graphics Card 1x GeForce GTX 980
2x GeForce GTX 980 (SLI)
1x GeForce GTX 980
2x GeForce GTX 980 (SLI)
OS Windows 8.1 Windows 8.1

Our testing methodology follows our Frame Rating system, which uses a capture-based system to measure frame times at the screen (rather than trusting the software's interpretation).

If you aren't familiar with it, you should probably do a little research into our testing methodology as it is quite different than others you may see online.  Rather than using FRAPS to measure frame rates or frame times, we are using an secondary PC to capture the output from the tested graphics card directly and then use post processing on the resulting video to determine frame rates, frame times, frame variance and much more.

This amount of data can be pretty confusing if you attempting to read it without proper background, but I strongly believe that the results we present paint a much more thorough picture of performance than other options.  So please, read up on the full discussion about our Frame Rating methods before moving forward!!

While there are literally dozens of file created for each “run” of benchmarks, there are several resulting graphs that FCAT produces, as well as several more that we are generating with additional code of our own.

If you need some more background on how we evaluate gaming performance on PCs, just check out my most recent GPU review for a full breakdown.

I only had time to test four different PC titles:

  • Bioshock Infinite
  • Grand Theft Auto V
  • GRID 2
  • Metro: Last Light

Bioshock Infinite (DirectX 11)


 

BioShock Infinite is a first-person shooter like you’ve never seen. Just ask the judges from E3 2011, where the Irrational Games title won over 85 editorial awards, including the Game Critics Awards’ Best of Show. Set in 1912, players assume the role of former Pinkerton agent Booker DeWitt, sent to the flying city of Columbia on a rescue mission. His target? Elizabeth, imprisoned since childhood. During their daring escape, Booker and Elizabeth form a powerful bond -- one that lets Booker augment his own abilities with her world-altering control over the environment. Together, they fight from high-speed Sky-Lines, in the streets and houses of Columbia, on giant zeppelins, and in the clouds, all while learning to harness an expanding arsenal of weapons and abilities, and immersing players in a story that is not only steeped in profound thrills and surprises, but also invests its characters with what Game Informer called “An amazing experience from beginning to end."

Skylake vs. Sandy Bridge: Discrete GPU Showdown - Graphics Cards 18

Skylake vs. Sandy Bridge: Discrete GPU Showdown - Graphics Cards 19

Skylake vs. Sandy Bridge: Discrete GPU Showdown - Graphics Cards 20

Our Settings for Bioshock Infinite

Though the GTX 980 on the Core i7-6700K is 8% faster than it is on the 2600K, you can also see some differences in frame time consistency. Look at the FPS by Percentile graph where the orange line representing Sandy Bridge tails off sooner than the black line, representing Skylake.

At 2560x1440, all of this deviation between Skylake and Sandy Bridge is essentially gone, thanks to the added weight given to the GPU by the additional pixels. This isn't entirely surprising but does hint that maybe gamers with older systems that are using higher resolution screens may yet not need to upgrade.

GTX 980 SLI Results - 2560x1440

Well this is interesting - as we dive into the world of SLI and the hiccups of multi-GPU, even at 2560x1440, things start to look better for Skylake. In this case we find that the Core i7-6700K has about a 10% higher frame rate on average than Sandy Bridge and also much tighter frame time consistency.

Let's see how the other games in our testing fare.

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