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

Sierra FEAR 1.08 1024x768: Points Ranking Palit HD4870 X2 2GB 266 Asus EAH3870 X2 1GB TOP/G/3DHTI/1G/A 290 MSI R3870X2-T2D1G-OC 294 MSI R3870X2-T2D1G-OC (Crossfire) 256 Diamond Viper Radeon HD 2900XT 177 Diamond Viper Radeon HD 2900XT CrossFire 207 Asus EAH4850 HTDI/512M 259 MSI RX2600XT Diamond 103 Asus EAX1900XTX 2DHTV/512M/A 188 Asus EAX1950PRO/HTDP/256M/A 109 nVidia Geforce 9600GTs in SLI 210 Asus EN9600GT Top/HTDI/512M 179 Foxconn 9600GT-512NOC 195 Palit Geforce 9600GT 512 183 Biostar V903GT52-NV1AN 197 MSI NX8800GTX-T2D768E 168 Foxconn FV-N88SMCD2-ONOC 150 MSI NX8800GTS-T2D320E-HD-OC 143 Palit 8800GT Super+ 1GB 209 MSI NX8800GT-T2D512E-OC 159 Asus EN8800GT TOP/G/HTDP/512M/A 160 GeForce 8600GTS SLI 149 Foxconn 8600GTS-256 111 MSI NX8600GTS-T2D256E-OC 107 Albatron 8600GT-256 94 Gigabyte GV-NX85T256H SLI 97 MSI NX8500GT-TD256E 54 MSI NX7950GX2-T2D1GE 143 MSI NX7900GTX-T2D512E 138 MSI NX7900GS-T2D512E-OC 112 Gigabyte GV-NX76T256D-RH 78 Biostar Sigma-Gate GeForce 7600GS 68 1600x1200: Points Ranking Palit HD4870 X2 2GB 203 Asus EAH3870 X2 1GB TOP/G/3DHTI/1G/A 213 MSI R3870X2-T2D1G-OC 209 MSI R3870X2-T2D1G-OC (Crossfire) 189 Diamond Viper Radeon HD 2900XT 119 Diamond Viper Radeon HD 2900XT CrossFire 153 Asus EAH4850 HTDI/512M 144 MSI RX2600XT Diamond 49 Asus EAX1900XTX 2DHTV/512M/A 114 Asus EAX1950PRO/HTDP/256M/A 59 nVidia Geforce 9600GTs in SLI 190 Asus EN9600GT Top/HTDI/512M 126 Foxconn 9600GT-512NOC 138 Palit Geforce 9600GT 512 128 Biostar V903GT52-NV1AN 125 MSI NX8800GTX-T2D768E 143 Foxconn FV-N88SMCD2-ONOC 108 MSI NX8800GTS-T2D320E-HD-OC 103 Palit 8800GT Super+ 1GB 149 MSI NX8800GT-T2D512E-OC 135 Asus EN8800GT TOP/G/HTDP/512M/A 138 GeForce 8600GTS SLI 97 Foxconn 8600GTS-256 56 MSI NX8600GTS-T2D256E-OC 54 Albatron 8600GT-256 48 Gigabyte GV-NX85T256H SLI 39 MSI NX8500GT-TD256E 28 MSI NX7950GX2-T2D1GE 110 MSI NX7900GTX-T2D512E 79 MSI NX7900GS-T2D512E-OC 60 Gigabyte GV-NX76T256D-RH 39 Biostar Sigma-Gate GeForce 7600GS 34 1024x768 w/Soft Shadows Enabled: Points Ranking Palit HD4870 X2 2GB 272 Asus EAH3870 X2 1GB TOP/G/3DHTI/1G/A 213 MSI R3870X2-T2D1G-OC 209 MSI R3870X2-T2D1G-OC (Crossfire) 260 Diamond Viper Radeon HD 2900XT 143 Diamond Viper Radeon HD 2900XT CrossFire 167 Asus EAH4850 HTDI/512M 166 MSI RX2600XT Diamond 53 Asus EAX1900XTX 2DHTV/512M/A 91 Asus EAX1950PRO/HTDP/256M/A 66 nVidia Geforce 9600GTs in SLI 184 Asus EN9600GT Top/HTDI/512M 125 Foxconn 9600GT-512NOC 134 Palit Geforce 9600GT 512 134 Biostar V903GT52-NV1AN 122 MSI NX8800GTX-T2D768E 144 Foxconn FV-N88SMCD2-ONOC 113 MSI NX8800GTS-T2D320E-HD-OC 112 Palit 8800GT Super+ 1GB 158 MSI NX8800GT-T2D512E-OC 136 Asus EN8800GT TOP/G/HTDP/512M/A 139 GeForce 8600GTS SLI 110 Foxconn 8600GTS-256 61 MSI NX8600GTS-T2D256E-OC 60 Albatron 8600GT-256 52 Gigabyte GV-NX85T256H SLI 58 MSI NX8500GT-TD256E 23 MSI NX7950GX2-T2D1GE 114 MSI NX7900GTX-T2D512E 85 MSI NX7900GS-T2D512E-OC 63 Gigabyte GV-NX76T256D-RH 40 Biostar Sigma-Gate GeForce 7600GS 31 1600x1200 w/Soft Shadows Enabled: Points Ranking Palit HD4870 X2 2GB 201 Asus EAH3870 X2 1GB TOP/G/3DHTI/1G/A 133 MSI R3870X2-T2D1G-OC 132 MSI R3870X2-T2D1G-OC (Crossfire) 186 Diamond Viper Radeon HD 2900XT 75 Diamond Viper Radeon HD 2900XT CrossFire 104 Asus EAH4850 HTDI/512M 85 MSI RX2600XT Diamond 18 Asus EAX1900XTX 2DHTV/512M/A 42 Asus EAX1950PRO/HTDP/256M/A 30 nVidia Geforce 9600GTs in SLI 109 Asus EN9600GT Top/HTDI/512M 58 Foxconn 9600GT-512NOC 61 Palit Geforce 9600GT 512 57 Biostar V903GT52-NV1AN 56 MSI NX8800GTX-T2D768E 82 Foxconn FV-N88SMCD2-ONOC 55 MSI NX8800GTS-T2D320E-HD-OC 57 Palit 8800GT Super+ 1GB 73 MSI NX8800GT-T2D512E-OC 75 Asus EN8800GT TOP/G/HTDP/512M/A 76 GeForce 8600GTS SLI 51 Foxconn 8600GTS-256 27 MSI NX8600GTS-T2D256E-OC 26 Albatron 8600GT-256 20 Gigabyte GV-NX85T256H SLI 17 MSI NX8500GT-TD256E 10 MSI NX7950GX2-T2D1GE 59 MSI NX7900GTX-T2D512E 39 MSI NX7900GS-T2D512E-OC 30 Gigabyte GV-NX76T256D-RH 18 Biostar Sigma-Gate GeForce 7600GS 14

That’s more like it. Prior to Crysis, FEAR was the video card killer of choice, but the MSI R3870X2-T2D1G-OC doesn’t miss a beat in powering through this benchmark. Our crossfire setup shows a clear improvement at the higher resolutions.