Section IV Performance – Gaming
Gaming as a test of motherboard performance is sort of a joke these days. The big player in the gaming arena is the GPU. Everyone but a few hardcore PR teams know this. However, it is important to run at least a few (one from each current DX version) to see if there are any issues with the combination of components on a motherboard. These are items like Audio lag, memory lag and of course problems with the PCIe lanes and signal traces. If there are issues in design, drivers or BIOS then you can have odd gaming performance. So without much more preamble let’s dive into the three games we currently use; Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 for DX9 FarCry 2 for DX10 and Battlefield Bad Company 2 for DX11.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 DX9 -
This is an excellent but short game that put you right into the action from the beginning and does not let up the pressure until the very end. The graphics are a little better; most notably the night and thermal imaging have been improved. The AI is still the typical COD “bar fight” style AI, with maybe a tad more finesse. All in all it is not a bad game to play and a decent one to use for testing. Our testing run starts at the bridge and ends after you clear the school in the first level of the game. Settings are shown below as are the performance numbers.

Modern Warfare 2 on the A55M-DS2 is more than playable with a minimum frame rate of 39FPS. This is over our minimum for full fluid motion and we even had some of the eye candy enabled. The game did feel a little sluggish when a lot of enemies were on the screen. This appears to be an issue with the CPU’s ability to process all the AI commands rather than the APU’s ability to render the scene.

FarCry2 DX10 -
Although not one of my favorite games this tedious game does have some good graphics. The large sandbox style of the game lends to mission based play. The only problem is that the AI is rather low grade. Still the more CPU power the more the bad guys try to do. Over all the game was a little bit of a disappointment to play, but still not a bad DX10 representation. Our testing run starts right after you get your first mission to clean out the safe-house and ends after the hostage rescue. Settings and performance numbers are shown below.

FarCry 2 was playable, but just barely. With a minimum frame rate of 17-18 it could become a terrible slide show style game very quickly. Also many of the effects would cause the game to stutter as the APU/GPU fought to keep up. Long story short; you can play this game (even using DX10), but it will probably not be enjoyable.


Battlefield Bad Company2 DX11 –
I have liked many of the Battlefield games. They usually tend to be fast paced and fun. With Battlefield Bad Company 2 you do get some of that, but there is something about the graphics and the movement that just does not sit right. The AI is a less sophisticated form of the bar fight AI, but it gets the job done. Still, the game is good for testing as it can put a strain on the components of the board. Out testing run is the entire first level, from beginning to end. Settings are shown below along with the raw numbers.

Wow, unlike the A75 the A55 really took a beating when running Bad Company 2. The game was slow and sluggish. During the bombing runs in the first level the screen jumped around so bad that it was almost impossible to aim. Also your point of view was sluggish to change which made maneuvering around difficult.

Gaming wrap-up -
The A55M-DS2 is not really meant as a gaming board. Ok so you can probably play older games (HalfLife and possibly HalfLife 2) but you are not going to pull off any new games without losing so much that is makes it not worth the effort.