Performance Results

First up is the Gateway DX4885 with its Haswell-based Core i5-4440 processor and integrated Intel HD 4600 Graphics.  

In the order of appearance, the average frame rate performance increase going from the HD 4600 graphics to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti  reference card is measured in multiples rather than percentages. Bioshock Infinite improved by 6.2x, Crysis 3 by 5.2x, GRID 2 by 5.1x, Metro: Last Light by 5.4x and Skyrim by 8.3x.  

These are enormous performance gains and fundamentally change the gaming capability of the system.  1080p gaming is not only completely feasible but running at higher image quality settings is also possible.

The ASUS M11BB system had a more powerful integrated GPU than the Gateway DX4885, though not by a wide margin due to the age of the APU.  Still, average frame rates scaled dramatically.  

The Pentium G2030 system is easily the slowest performer out of the box in both graphics and processor based use.  However, even with just a dual-core processor at the helm, the GeForce GTX 750 Ti is able to make this $340 machine a 1080p gaming powerhouse for another $150 upgrade.  There are some areas where the slower CPU makes a noticeable difference – Metro for example.  Even though both the Lenovo + G2030 system and Gateway + Core i5-4440 are running at the same resolution and preset, the post-upgrade frame rate of the higher end system is about 2x that of Lenovo's.

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