6. Benchmark Results

3D Games

Doom 3 seems completely CPU bound at resolutions up to 2048x1536, pegging the needle at around 200 frames per second for the XPS 720 H2C, and approximately 160 frames per second for our own building effort. Dell's average performance superiority here is 21%, mostly due to a CPU overclock of 27%. "Upgrading" to Windows Vista reduces Dell's lead by around half!

Anyone who games on Dell's 30" monitor will love that they can crank all of F.E.A.R's settings to the top and still get superb frame rates on either system. A funny thing happens at a moderate 1280x960 resolution with antialiasing and anisotropic filtering turned on, though: the faster system drops below the performance level of its cheaper rival when Windows Vista is installed. I haven't seen a performance drop like that on my own system since the last time I picked up a Trojan downloader infection.

Oblivion is once again CPU performance capped, getting an approximate 25% performance gain from Dell's 27% overclock. Windows Vista hurts a bit less at lower settings, and the Dell system survived the difficult-to-display outdoor scene at an astounding 2560x1600 resolution.