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.

Interestingly enough the G1.Assassin2 is not in the top three of our test group; in fact it is not even in the top five! Instead it falls into 7th place and is 9 FPS (minimum) behind the leader.

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.

In FarCry 2 the G1.Assassin2 regains some of its speed and ends up out in front for our stock testing. Unfortunately it is only by one FPS which means that this would be a normal variance and certainly is not something that you would see if you were using either of the top two boards.


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.

Under Bad Company 2 the G1.Assassin2 comes out on top finally. Once again it is by an exceptionally small margin (2 FPS) which means that while we can call a winner by the numbers, in reality you would never be able to pick which one it was in a line up.

Gaming wrap-up -
The G1.Assassin2 is billed as great for gaming and it is. But it is not going to get you massive leaps in frame per second. Instead where its strength lies is in bringing depth to your gaming experience. The built in Creative Labs X-fi offers solid audio performance in even the most demanding games and in some cases offers an extra level that you cannot get from any other card (with X-Fi HD 5.0). This and the KillerNIC E2100 NPU (for you online gamers) makes the G1.Assassin2 very well suited to keep even the pickiest of gamers happy.