uh no, everyone runs the benchmark if your to stupid to understand the difference thats your problem
the game has a built in CPU bench and Built in DX11 1080p and 720p benchmark it also has custom benchmark settings by using In game settings,
DX11 1080p is the normal ran in tests, Andantech posting say ULTRA settings is just everything turned on in game graphics menu and then use the Bench game settings option
The results are not all over the place,
The CPU has to handle all Animation / Physics / 1 on 1 battle sync on 1 CPU core AMD fails in this regard.
In my own testing using large scale battles aka 2 vs 2 thats 20 units + 20 units vs 20 units + 20 units in battle which does happen in game is on average anywhere from 3000-5000 vs 3000-5000 men, when join in melee the CPU must handle the 1 on 1 fighting between all individual soldiers while also calculating overall unit statistics
So unlike most games if you have a 7850 2gb or better your CPU will be the limiting factor.
One thing I have noticed with more recent patches is the game will drop CPU handled animations frames while keeping graphics running, this means the game can run at 60 fps according to say the benchmark but the animations are running at 15-16 fps causing
Originally the game would DROP to 15-16 fps solid no matter the GPU in huge melee battles unless on Intel ivy or sandy bridge chip. now FPS will stay higher but it drops animation frames regardless its extremely distracting depending on the system and hardware.
Easiest way to avoid it period is to run Intel i5 set shadows to medium, because on Ultra graphics settings all soldiers bodies remain on screen, those dead soliders are still technically animated, aka it has to keep the dead body animation in sync with the rest of the engine, setting Unit detail to High causes some bodies to dissappear.
Regardless watch the two videos you will see the difference I am talking about, large melee still lags on 90% of systems. Its an inherent flaw in the game engine, and it wont change going forward to Rome II.
The Warscape engine used in Empire / Napoleon / Shogun 2 is ment for GUN POWDER era aka guys standing still shooting muskets, so no heavy animation load on the CPU trying to sync all these fighters. Shogun 2 is heavily melee Rome II will be as well.
Older games like Medieval 2 and Rome can also handle extreme unit sizes and battles but its also single core with less optimization aka text files etc used for making things work. In this regard Intel also comes out ahead.
No matter the GPU I have used playing these games CPU has always been the limitation 8800 GTX 640 in Rome / 4870x2 5850 xfire 6970s 6950s 7970 gtx 670 my frame rate is more often than not limited by the CPU during battles.
Basically Minimum frame rate is entirely dependent on the CPU used and the worse the CPU more often the game stutters and hitches even with todays best GPUs
