Performance with the Core i7 3770K integrated GPU and GIGABYTE Z77N-Wi-Fi on our BitFenix Prodigy PC

It has been quite sometime since I built our Prodigy PC, but in that time I've had to move house, fly to Taipei for Computex, and completely pack and re-setup my office. But, we're here, and we're finally back in action.

What we have here today is a look at the Core i7 3770K and GIGABYTE Z77N-Wi-Fi's gaming performance. Sure, most people won't use this motherboard without a GPU for gaming, but it can do the job at 1280x720. Let's take a look at our range of tests to see how gaming goes at 1280x720 and 1920x1080.

I don't expect to see any good numbers at 1080p, but at 720p I expect to hover at around 30 FPS with medium details, which is what I've chosen to run on both resolutions.

Below, we have the specifications of our BitFenix Prodigy PC build:

• Case: BitFenix Prodigy
• CPU: Intel Core i7 3770K @ 4.2GHz
• Motherboard: GIGABYTE Z77N-Wi-Fi
• GPU: GIGABYTE Radeon HD 7950 WindForce (not in use)
• RAM: Corsair Vengeance Pro Series 16GB DDR3 2400MHz (CMY16GX3M2A2400C10R)
• Storage: Corsair Neutron GTX 240GB SSD (x2)
• Cooling: Corsair Hydro H100i series
• PSU: Corsair AX760i

As usual, I'd like to thank our friends at BitFenix, Corsair and GIGABYTE for supplying the hardware for this build. Without these amazing companies (and my various friends at those companies) none of this would be possible, so thanks for your help, guys and girls.

Since our build guide on the Prodigy, I've swapped out the previous RAM we had installed, which was a Corsair 8GB kit of 1866MHz RAM for Corsair's new Vengeance Pro 2400Mhz kit.

Onto the benchmarks!

We have Sleeping Dogs, Tomb Raider, BioShock Infinite, Metro 2033 and Hitman: Absolution on the test bed as they all have built-in benchmarks. We'll eventually take a look at some other popular games such as Battlefield 3 (and 4) in the near future.

First up, we have Sleeping Dogs:

As you can see, at 720p we have 29.8 FPS - right on the edge of 30 FPS. This is playable, and what consoles run at (most console games run at around 720p at 30 FPS). But cranking the dial up to 1080p sees a drop down to just 19 FPS.

While this isn't completely unplayable, it's not entirely enjoyable, either.

Next, we have Tomb Raider:

At 720p, Tomb Raider reaches over 30 FPS with a benchmark of 31.9 FPS at medium detail. This isn't too bad of a score for some on-board VGA. As for 1080p, we see it dip right down to 16.7 FPS - again while playable, this isn't a great result.

Considering it's on-board VGA, we do have to give credit where it's due.

The third test we have up is BioShock Infinite:

BioShock Infinite's results weren't too bad for 720p, where we again hover at around 30 FPS with 28.6 FPS on medium detail. As for 1080p, this one was a poor performer with just 13.8 FPS.

Metro 2033 is our second to last benchmark:

Another game that goes just over 30 FPS, with a result of 31.6 FPS at 720p and medium detail. At 1080p, Metro 2033 scores just 17.6 FPS.

Our final game today on the test bed is Hitman: Absolution:

Hitman: Absolution didn't fare that well at 720p, scoring just 25.9 FPS. This is still playable, but not ideal. At 1080p, the results were much worse: just 14 FPS.

Final conclusion:

Gaming on our Core i7 3770K and GIGABYTE Z77N-Wi-Fi was not too bad at all at 720p, at 1080p I wouldn't really bother, though. 720p gaming is still current generation console quality, which is something you can't complain about. Nearly all of our games scored around 30 FPS, which is what you want to hit to have a somewhat fluid gaming experience.

It's great to see this from GIGABYTE's Z77N-Wi-Fi motherboard. Our next Tweakipedia post on our BitFenix Prodigy PC will be using GIGABYTE's Radeon HD 7950 WindForce GPU, with some much better results to come.

Last updated: Nov 3, 2020 at 08:12 pm CST