Game Benchmarks: F.E.A.R.
F.E.A.R. is an intense, edge-of-your-seat shooter released in October 2005. It’s very GPU-intensive and does not support multi-threading. For our tests, we use the game’s built-in performance test and ran it at max details, max system specs, and 16x anisotropic filtering.
Taking a look at the performance without FSAA, at 1024x768 we see a 10 FPS average frame rate separation between each CPU on with the dual-core X2 4200+ providing the least performance. The A64 4000+ is able to pull halfway up to the X2 5600+ in average FPS.
Things change quickly as we up the resolution. At 1280x1024, just 5 FPS separate the bottom and top CPU in average frame rates. At 1600x1200, we see just how demanding of GPU horsepower F.E.A.R. really is, as performance is close between all three processors.
Increasing the GPU strain more with 4x FSAA, we see almost no difference between the three processors. As we raise the resolution, the 8800 GS is clearly the limiting factor.
We are able to see at low resolutions that dual core provides no real advantage in this game. But it’s also clear that all three of these CPUs are fine for this game, while at stock clock speeds the 8800 GS was unable to handle 1600x1200 max details and 4X FSAA.
