Benchmarks: System and Gaming
Here's where the Brix Gaming turns the tables on the Brix Pro. The combination of a Core i5 chip with dual-channel memory and an mSATA SSD has delivered solid results in the benchmarks thus far, but factor the GeForce GTX 760 into the equation and overall system performance can really fly.
The 3DMark score is far and away the highest we've seen for a system of this size, and a return of over 50 frames per second in Aliens vs. Predator suggests that the Brix Pro will live up to its high-quality gaming ambitions.
1080p Gaming Performance (Average FPS) |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Game | Image Preset | Gigabyte Brix Gaming |
|||
(Nvidia GeForce GTX 760) |
(Intel Iris Pro 5200) |
(AMD Radeon R7) |
(Nvidia GeForce GTX 660) |
||
| BioShock Infinite | Very Low Quality | 145.3 |
51.0 |
42.6 |
- |
| Low Quality | 114.8 |
34.5 |
31.4 |
- |
|
| Medium Quality | 72.9 |
27.0 |
26.8 |
98.8 |
|
| High Quality | 61.5 |
23.4 |
22.5 |
89.5 |
|
| Max Quality | 36.3 |
11.0 |
12.7 |
54.4 |
|
| GRID 2 | CMAA, Ultra Low Quality | 137.1 |
77.0 |
68.2 |
- |
| 2xMSAA, Low Quality | 124.8 |
53.0 |
56.2 |
- |
|
| 4xMSAA, Medium Quality | 93.5 |
36.4 |
45.0 |
115.7 |
|
| 4xMSAA, High Quality | 73.9 |
31.0 |
33.9 |
103.5 |
|
| 4xMSAA, Ultra Quality | 41.3 |
17.4 |
19.0 |
57.5 |
|
| Total War: Rome II | Low Quality | 89.4 |
44.9 |
35.7 |
- |
| Medium Quality | 85.1 |
42.8 |
34.3 |
124.2 |
|
| Very High Quality | 40.0 |
22.5 |
17.4 |
56.1 |
|
| Extreme Quality | 20.3 |
16.0 |
13.3 |
25.3 |
|
To get a better feel for real-world gaming potential, we've run a trio of modern titles at a full-HD 1080p resolution. The results show that the Brix Gaming mini-PC is able to return roughly 60 frames per second in most games with high-quality settings.
That's an impressive feat for a system of this size, but all isn't quite as it should be. We had actually expected higher benchmark scores and, making things interesting, we noticed that the average fps was rarely consistent between runs. Digging deeper into our logs reveals the reason: Gigabyte's GTX 760 isn't able to keep running at full speed due to thermal restrictions and is quick to throttle back the frequency.
Trouble is, we aren't talking a mild snip here or there. Perusing our log files shows that while the GPU starts off at 966MHz in most games, it isn't long until core speed plummets to 405MHz. That's a near-60 per cent decrease in core clock speed and the 6GB frame buffer doesn't run optimally, either, as it tends to drop from 5,000MHz to 4,000MHz. It's worth noting that the system still manages to keep most games running, but it's a shame users won't be able to experience the full power of the Brix Gaming's underlying hardware.
