F.E.A.R. GPU Performance Tests: Setting a New Standard
by Josh Venning on October 20, 2005 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
No Soft Shadows and No AA/AF Performance Tests
This is the setting that we would recommend most people establish. Anisotropic filtering can be enabled for a minimal performance drop, but many people just won't have hardware that can handle soft shadows or antialiasing. Also note that we have made quite a big deal about the fact that soft shadows in this game just aren't worth it.
Without soft shadows or AA enabled, you can see that until you get to a resolution as high as about 1024x768, all of these cards get playable framerates. The X1300 Pro is the most limited of these cards and can really only play this game well at 640x480 and 800x600 without AA or soft shadows enabled. But you can see how low the framerates are in general at 1280x1024 and 1600x1200 for all the cards, giving us a first look at the graphical demands of this game. The 7800 GTX and 7800 GT get very respectable framerates at 1600x1200 though, and at this same resolution, the 6800 GT and X1800 XL are low, but still playable. 25 fps is about as low as we would consider barely "playable", but to really enjoy the gameplay, you'll want a framerate of about 35 fps. Now, let's look at what happens when we turn on 4xAA and 8xAF.
This is the setting that we would recommend most people establish. Anisotropic filtering can be enabled for a minimal performance drop, but many people just won't have hardware that can handle soft shadows or antialiasing. Also note that we have made quite a big deal about the fact that soft shadows in this game just aren't worth it.
Without soft shadows or AA enabled, you can see that until you get to a resolution as high as about 1024x768, all of these cards get playable framerates. The X1300 Pro is the most limited of these cards and can really only play this game well at 640x480 and 800x600 without AA or soft shadows enabled. But you can see how low the framerates are in general at 1280x1024 and 1600x1200 for all the cards, giving us a first look at the graphical demands of this game. The 7800 GTX and 7800 GT get very respectable framerates at 1600x1200 though, and at this same resolution, the 6800 GT and X1800 XL are low, but still playable. 25 fps is about as low as we would consider barely "playable", but to really enjoy the gameplay, you'll want a framerate of about 35 fps. Now, let's look at what happens when we turn on 4xAA and 8xAF.
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eljefeII - Saturday, October 22, 2005 - link
yeah, x1800 looks like a flop for the most part. and it doesnt exist.kinda gay
ryanlopez4550 - Saturday, October 22, 2005 - link
but games like this make up for the lower settingsmy friend came over last night and we played online FEAR for 6 hours
He has a comp i built him with a 6600gt and it ran great on some custom setting and didnt look at all sub par. Didnt lag ONCE all night. The test program in the game is really cool to so now i dont have to sit there with fraps and stuff on for ever
multi player - the gameplay is so fast most of the time there is NO time for you to admire the scenery
boyer00 - Saturday, October 22, 2005 - link
it says how the geforce 7800 is basically the only card to run it at the highest end, i just ordered a alienware about a week ago with, dual geforce 7800GTX-KO's, and a 19"LCD monitor, 4 gig DDR2 ram and 3.2 dual core pentium-D....my question is do i have anything to worry about in the upcoming months/year graphically?Gary Key - Sunday, October 23, 2005 - link
Since you are probably limited to 1280x1024 on your 19" LCD then you are fairly safe. However, the 840D will have issues in providing enough data (the GPUs will have wait states) for the 7800GTX SLI setup at the higher resolutions such as 1600x1200 in case you decide to change monitors. I have found the 7800GTX SLI setup and the 840EE to run Fear at 1280x1024 (960) without too much of an issue.Regs - Saturday, October 22, 2005 - link
The answer to this question is always yes. You just bought a excellent system to play today's games. Not tomorrows games.ryanlopez4550 - Friday, October 21, 2005 - link
i have a 7800 gtx at 490-1300 and a gig of ram and a 3200 amd...i tested the game out on the MIN. settings... direct x 7 and such (looked like duke nukem) and i got a max of 60 a min of 58 and an average of 59
everything else runs HORRIBLY!
ryanlopez4550 - Friday, October 21, 2005 - link
ONE MORE TIMEtried to get the new drivers for my 7800gtx
its telling me i dont have the right drivers for my hardware... ?????????
well anywho i uninstalled them all and reinstalled them so i have the old old drivers and now the game runs like normal
'high' and 'high' settings got me a min. of 54 and a max of 214
ryanlopez4550 - Friday, October 21, 2005 - link
ok just tried it againmax setting (1024x768) soft shadows and 4x16x i got an average of 23 fps
so i lower the settings... soft shadows off and 2x8x and i get the same results...
Kung Lau - Friday, October 21, 2005 - link
Is there any way to get a poll of AT forum viewers and establish which cards get tested on bleeding edge software? Wouldn't that help us see data that pertains to the majority of us. I understand that you can't evaluate every possible card/model/resolution variation but a current reader based poll may help.fogeyman - Friday, October 21, 2005 - link
Post in the forums.