Call of Duty 2
Our third takes a look at Call of Duty 2, which is running a “self-made” engine by Activision; though if you look closely, it has a few Quake 3 roots in it. However, this game's graphics are beyond anything the Quake 3 engine could do. Lets take a look at the results.



Even on a 7800GT, this game requires more video juice. My CPU had nothing to do with the lower limits of my FPS in this game - it was all based on the video card. Even at 800x600 resolution, this highly detailed game would not max out. All in all, a very interesting result.

Quake 4
Our final game is Quake 4, which is arguably the most detailed and “prettiest” game of all four in our roundup. Because of this, we should probably expect it to show the most staggered results, a firm indicator of a non-CPU limited game. Let's look:



This is by far the most interesting result of the test. Quake 4 is actually quite CPU limited, at least much more so than CoD2. It just goes as a testament to iD's engine programming abilities that they can have such a highly detailed game be limited by the CPU instead of the graphics card. One final part of this test that is of interest is the "Low Quality" result, run with all the “bells and whistles” in the game turned off. The lower quality textures would only affect the graphics card, but several other options, such as “high quality weapons effects”, appear to tax the CPU more than the GPU. Turning these options off in the “advanced settings” tab will, according to these results, give you nearly a 10 FPS boost.

With these benchmarks in mind, be careful during your next computer buy. It's not all about the biggest, flashiest graphics card if you don't have a processor to back it up. So keep that in mind this holiday season as you're spending your money on a new rig, and be sure to go for an even balance: Your FPS depends on it!