FEAR - Multi-Threaded Test	Source: Sierra

FEAR is Sierra's latest first person shooter which relies heavily on DirectX 9 features. With its "Soft Shadows" feature enabled, even the fastest videocards run at a crawl, FEAR is definitely the new benchmark for future FPS games to follow.

Prime95 + FEAR
Minimum 640x480:	FPS	Ranking
Intel Pentium D 840	176
Intel Pentium D 940	211
AMD Athlon64 4000+	274
AMD Athlon64 FX-60	254
AMD Athlon64 X2 5000+ (GeForce 7800GTX Single)	219
AMD Athlon64 X2 5000+ (GeForce 7800GTX SLI)	196
AMD Athlon64 X2 5000+ (Overclocked to 2.92 GHz)	249
AMD Athlon64 FX-62 (GeForce 7800GTX Single)	256
AMD Athlon64 FX-62 (GeForce 7800GTX SLI)	244
AMD Athlon64 FX-62 (Overclocked to 3.08 GHz)	272
Maximum 1024x768:	FPS	Ranking
Intel Pentium D 840	83
Intel Pentium D 940	97
AMD Athlon64 4000+	105
AMD Athlon64 FX-60	103
AMD Athlon64 X2 5000+ (GeForce 7800GTX Single)	75
AMD Athlon64 X2 5000+ (GeForce 7800GTX SLI)	93
AMD Athlon64 X2 5000+ (Overclocked to 2.92 GHz)	92
AMD Athlon64 FX-62 (GeForce 7800GTX Single)	99
AMD Athlon64 FX-62 (GeForce 7800GTX SLI)	111
AMD Athlon64 FX-62 (Overclocked to 3.08 GHz)	103

Gamers who like to multitask definitely need to get themselves a dual core processor. The framerates are absolutely excellent even with Prime95 running in the background! Impressive wouldn't you say?

Now that we've talked specs, shown you piles and piles of benchmarks, and waded through power draw figures, what does all this add up to? Well, that's a great question...