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F.E.A.R. GPU Performance Tests: Setting a New Standard

 by Josh Venning on October 20, 2005 9:00 AM EST
117 Comments | Add A Comment
117 Comments
Soft Shadows Performance

Please refer back to our earlier section on soft shadows to learn why (aside from abysmal performance) we recommend against enabling soft shadows. Upon selecting the option in FEAR to enable soft shadows, a dialog box will pop up to inform the gamer that soft shadows are a high end option, which will only run well on heavy hitting graphics hardware. It is very true that you need to high end hardware to run the game with soft shadows, but we just don't like the feature.

With Soft Shadows enabled, the game takes a very significant performance hit. You can see that the 7800 GTX and GT become borderline-unplayable at 1600x1200, while the rest of the cards' framerates drop off quite abruptly. The X800 GT is only really playable at the absolute lowest resolution, and the X1300 PRO isn't really playable at all. At 37 fps, the 6600 GT does very well at 800x600, and although this is a low resolution by other games' standards, FEAR is still impressive. While 640x480 leaves something to be desired, 800x600 doesn't do a bad job in a pinch. But in a case like the 6600 GT, it is especially desirable to disable soft shadows and go with a higher resolution.

4xAA/8xAF Performance Tests Final Words
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  • dev0lution - Thursday, October 20, 2005 - link

    How is it that the X800XL is consistantly left out of the benchmarks? You have multiple ATI cards in the test that aren't even available, but leave out one of their best sellers in this and plenty of other reviews.

  • Avalon - Thursday, October 20, 2005 - link

    I would not declare 30fps playable when your game settings involved sound disabled. No one is going to play with sound off, and thus their framerates will be even lower. This game runs like ass. I hope I can get my copy to run at all on my 6600 @ 400/700.

  • Leper Messiah - Thursday, October 20, 2005 - link

    Fo' sho'.

    cmon AT, where's the SLi benchies? Can 2 7800GTX's run this game at 1600x1200 with AA/AF and sound?

  • aldamon - Thursday, October 20, 2005 - link

    For the NVIDIA cards, was Forceware set to Quality or High Quality?

    Were Transparency AA and Gamma Correct AA turned on?

    If Transparency AA was turned on, was Multipsampling or Supersampling used?

  • Ender17 - Thursday, October 20, 2005 - link

    is AnandTech ever going to get with the times and use 1920 x 1200 for all us widescreen users?

  • DerekWilson - Thursday, October 20, 2005 - link

    In our most recent graphics performance article we did include 1920x1200

    For FEAR, the resolution is not an option (physically) and would have been too difficult to hack into existance.

    the game does not run widescreen resolutions. Check tweakguide for more details.

  • Le Québécois - Thursday, October 20, 2005 - link

    Normally I would agree but with FEAR why bother with 1920 when 1600 is barely an option.

  • lexmark - Thursday, October 20, 2005 - link

    very good read AT! New software benches makes me all gimpy inside :)

    I know im probably beating the dead horse here, but I was actually looking foward to purchasing a x1800XT for my main computer. (building one with a 7800GT for my son) :-) Now I either have to settle for the XL, jump on the 7800GTX bandwagon, or wait to mid-November :/

    As much as I love ATI products, I think they might have lost me as well as other customers who are tired of playing the waiting game.

  • lexmark - Thursday, October 20, 2005 - link

    purchasing a card to play F.E.A.R. that is.

  • lexmark - Thursday, October 20, 2005 - link

    Jeez i need a break. ><

    "I'M" purchasing a card to play F.E.A.R.that is.
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