AMD Fusion A8-3850 Platform Review - F1 2010, Far Cry 2, H.A.W.X. & H.A.W.X 2

F1 2010

F1 (Formula 1) is a relatively new racing title from Codemasters. Like their previous title (DiRT 2), F1 makes extensive usage of DX11 technology with cloth, fluid dynamics and tessellation. The title is much more strenuous on both single screen and Eyefinity, compared to DiRT 2. The HD 6670 is the first card to provide acceptable frames. Additionally it's interesting to note that the F1 2010 engine tends to be less demanding than Dirt 2, even though the game was produced by the same company and was released later.

Far Cry 2

Far Cry 2 (and the whole Cry/Crysis series) has long been considered a system killer. If not a killer, then at least a good strong test. As always, we run our test at max settings with 4xAA. The benchmark tool within Far Cry 2 offers settings for High, Very High and Ultra. We chose Ultra with 4xAA.

While once a true system killer, Far Cry 2 shows that hardware catches up to software. The A8-3850 won't hit 30fps at max 1080p, but it will at lowered settings or resolutions.. All in all good performance for this class of cards.

H.A.W.X.

H.A.W.X. is one last title that AMD has been showing off since the Radeon 5000 line launched. While the other titles are Hor+ and offer cutting-edge DX11 features, HAWX is quite the opposite. While it is a Hor+ title, it is only a DX10 title and runs quite well on a wide variety of hardware.

The well running and scalable title makes it a natural fit when showcasing both lower-end hardware pushing three panels, and high-end hardware pushing six panels. It also comes as no surprise that the additional VRAM largely goes unused, considering the title runs capably on lower hardware.

One note in the HAWX benchmark. Above 1920x1080 the game simply would not allow 4xAA. While the scores provide that the title could handle it, the option simply is not available. Though it isn't our norm, we chose to accept 2xAA so that we could get consistent readings across the spectrum of hardware.

H.A.W.X. 2

The H.A.W.X. 2 demo provides a different experience, versus the original. If offers more mountains and tessellated geometry, and fewer cityscapes. The DX11 title offers a realistic view in the snow covered mountains, and is quite pretty to watch.

Though it's not the same benchmark, the A-3850 does provide a better fps in the DX11 HAWX 2 benchmark, than it does in the DX10.1 benchmark from the original HAWX.