Benchmarks: System and Gaming
Putting together the CPU, GPU and storage capabilities, PCMark 8 is used to examine overall system speed. No surprises here; take an overclocked Core i7-4770K processor, attach 16GB of memory and a fast SSD, and you're looking at an incredibly fast and responsive rig.
What makes EVGA's Hadron Hydro chassis particularly useful is its ability to house a single, full-size graphics card. Scan has maximised this potential by using an overclocked EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Ti Superclocked graphics card that delivers massive gaming potential.
Our regular gaming benchmark, used across all systems of varying shapes and sizes, is Aliens vs. Predator run at a 1080p resolution with 2xAA, 4xAF and medium-quality settings. This simple test separates the wheat from the chaff, and it poses no challenge to the 3XS Z87 Hadron Hydro.
1080p Gaming Performance (Average FPS) |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Game | Image Preset | Scan 3XS Z87 Hadron Hydro |
|||
(EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Ti SC) |
(Palit GeForce GTX 660) |
(Intel Iris Pro 5200) |
(Nvidia GeForce GT 740M) |
||
| BioShock Infinite | Medium Quality | 236.7 |
98.8 |
27.0 |
17.4 |
| High Quality | 214.6 |
89.5 |
23.4 |
14.8 |
|
| Max Quality | 127.6 |
54.4 |
11.0 |
9.3 |
|
| GRID 2 | 4xMSAA, Medium Quality | 164.2 |
115.7 |
36.4 |
27.2 |
| 4xMSAA, High Quality | 156.5 |
103.5 |
31.0 |
20.8 |
|
| 4xMSAA, Ultra Quality | 110.5 |
57.5 |
17.4 |
12.8 |
|
| Total War: Rome II | Medium Quality | 256.5 |
124.2 |
42.8 |
22.2 |
| Very High Quality | 134.0 |
56.1 |
22.5 |
12.1 |
|
| Extreme Quality | 74.7 |
25.3 |
16.0 |
9.1 |
|
Investigating further, we've run a trio of games at a full-HD 1080p resolution with varying degrees of image quality. The results confirm what enthusiast gamers want to hear: with a rig as powerful as this, you can crank-up quality settings to maximum and continue to enjoy silky-smooth gameplay in many of today's latest games.
Just for kicks, and because we can, we also ran each game at a much higher 2,560x1,440 resolution. Even then, the 3XS Z87 Hadron Hydro managed to return an average framerate of 89.2 in BioShock Infinite, 74.1 in GRID 2 and 53.6 in Total War: Rome II. This, clearly, is a rig capable of much more than just full-HD gaming.
