Benchmarks: Gaming
Three of the above systems utilise a GeForce GTX 980 - Cyberpower's Trinity 300, PC Specialist's Vulcan 440 and Scan's 3XS Z170 Vengeance. All three should be closely matched, yet the Scan machine ekes out a performance advantage of almost 15 per cent. The gains can be attributed in part to the extra potency of the Skylake processor, but it's mostly due to the fact that the GTX 980 is overclocked to a lofty 1,467MHz.
As far as gaming is concerned this is the quickest GTX 980 machine we've tested, however it remains a distant second to the Scan 3XS X99 Nanu Carbon - the only machine in our line-up to be outfitted with a full-fat GTX 980 Ti.
Gaming Performance (Average FPS) |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| Game | Quality Settings | Scan 3XS Z170 Vengeance |
||
FHD (1,920x1,080) |
QHD (2,560x1,440) |
UHD (3,840x2,160) |
||
| Alien: Isolation | SMAA-T2x, Maximum Quality | 172.5 |
112.9 |
61.0 |
| Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor | Ultra Quality Preset | 101.9 |
73.6 |
41.0 |
| Total War: Rome II | Extreme Preset | 88.1 |
54.3 |
25.8 |
To get a truer feel of the 3XS Z170 Vengeance's gaming capabilities, we've also run a subset of modern titles with maximum amounts of image quality at three resolutions: FHD, QHD and 4K UHD.
Scan's machine can be deemed overkill at 1,920x1,080 and it'll struggle to maintain a smooth 60fps at a demanding 3,840x2,160 resolution. QHD 2,560x1,440 seems to be the sweet spot, making it an ideal companion for a quality G-Sync monitor.