Sierra FEAR 1.08	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.

Sierra FEAR 1.08
1024x768:	FPS	Ranking
Asus EAX1900XTX 2DHTV/512M/A	188
Asus EAX1950PRO/HTDP/256M/A	109
MSI NX8800GTX-T2D768E	157
Foxconn FV-N88SMCD2-ONOC	150
MSI NX8800GTS-T2D320E-HD-OC	143
GeForce 8600GTS SLI	149
Foxconn 8600GTS-256	111
MSI NX8600GTS-T2D256E-OC	107
Albatron 8600GT-256	94
MSI NX7950GX2-T2D1GE	143
MSI NX7900GTX-T2D512E	138
MSI NX7900GS-T2D512E-OC	112
Gigabyte GV-NX76T256D-RH	78
Biostar Sigma-Gate GeForce 7600GS	68
MSI NX8500GT-TD256E	54
MSI NX8500GT-TD256E (676/1040)	57
1600x1200:	FPS	Ranking
Asus EAX1900XTX 2DHTV/512M/A	114
Asus EAX1950PRO/HTDP/256M/A	59
MSI NX8800GTX-T2D768E	132
Foxconn FV-N88SMCD2-ONOC	108
MSI NX8800GTS-T2D320E-HD-OC	103
GeForce 8600GTS SLI	97
Foxconn 8600GTS-256	56
MSI NX8600GTS-T2D256E-OC	54
Albatron 8600GT-256	48
MSI NX7950GX2-T2D1GE	110
MSI NX7900GTX-T2D512E	79
MSI NX7900GS-T2D512E-OC	60
Gigabyte GV-NX76T256D-RH	39
Biostar Sigma-Gate GeForce 7600GS	34
MSI NX8500GT-TD256E	28
MSI NX8500GT-TD256E (676/1040)	31
1024x768 w/Soft Shadows Enabled:	FPS	Ranking
Asus EAX1900XTX 2DHTV/512M/A	91
Asus EAX1950PRO/HTDP/256M/A	66
MSI NX8800GTX-T2D768E	134
Foxconn FV-N88SMCD2-ONOC	113
MSI NX8800GTS-T2D320E-HD-OC	112
GeForce 8600GTS SLI	110
Foxconn 8600GTS-256	61
MSI NX8600GTS-T2D256E-OC	60
Albatron 8600GT-256	52
MSI NX7950GX2-T2D1GE	114
MSI NX7900GTX-T2D512E	85
MSI NX7900GS-T2D512E-OC	63
Gigabyte GV-NX76T256D-RH	40
Biostar Sigma-Gate GeForce 7600GS	31
MSI NX8500GT-TD256E	23
MSI NX8500GT-TD256E (676/1040)	25
1600x1200 w/Soft Shadows Enabled:	FPS	Ranking
Asus EAX1900XTX 2DHTV/512M/A	42
Asus EAX1950PRO/HTDP/256M/A	30
MSI NX8800GTX-T2D768E	74
Foxconn FV-N88SMCD2-ONOC	55
MSI NX8800GTS-T2D320E-HD-OC	57
GeForce 8600GTS SLI	51
Foxconn 8600GTS-256	27
MSI NX8600GTS-T2D256E-OC	26
Albatron 8600GT-256	20
MSI NX7950GX2-T2D1GE	59
MSI NX7900GTX-T2D512E	39
MSI NX7900GS-T2D512E-OC	30
Gigabyte GV-NX76T256D-RH	18
Biostar Sigma-Gate GeForce 7600GS	14
MSI NX8500GT-TD256E	10
MSI NX8500GT-TD256E (676/1040)	12

FEAR is a tough game but framerates at 1024x768 without Soft Shadows has decent framerates. Finally a low cost videocard that isn't bad at low resolution gaming. So where does all this leave us?