F.E.A.R. performance was determined by using the in-game performance test and supplemented with a gameplay walkthrough. The following in-game settings (physics, sound, effects, and graphics) were used in both tests.
F.E.A.R. Settings
First up are results from the in-game performance test on the Athlon X2 4800+, where F.E.A.R. received a significant boost in performance with SLI. At the widescreen resolution of 1920x1200, a single GeForce 7900 GTX averaged 37fps, which is a playable frame rate for some gamers.
With 4X AA at 1920x1200, 25% of the total number frames exceeded 40fps, while 33% did with soft shadows. In an SLI configuration, the percentage rose to 94% at both settings, which is an increase (in the percentage of frames that exceeded 40fps) of 276% with 4X AA and 185% with soft shadows!
Athlon 64 - F.E.A.R. Results
And the Pentium 4 3.4GHz results at a resolution of 1600x1200. With a single GeForce 7900 GTX, 43% of the total number of frames exceeded 40fps at 4X AA and with soft shadows. With SLI, the percentage doubled to 86%.
Pentium 4 - F.E.A.R. Results
GAMEPLAY PERFORMANCE
F.E.A.R. gameplay was only tested on the Athlon X2 4800+, which began at Interval 02 - Initiation where instructions are given to rendezvous with Ron Janikowski's team. The walkthrough takes about one minute and 10 seconds to complete.
F.E.A.R. Gameplay - Start of Walkthrough
Click Image to Enlarge - 1024x768
The lowest frame rate occurs in the scene below, as a well placed grenade causes a barrel to explode. A 320x240 MPEG-1 video/audio clip of the entire F.E.A.R gameplay scenario can be viewed using this link (~ 22MB). A shorter clip, which contains the first 15 seconds of the walkthrough, can be viewed using this link (~3MB).
F.E.A.R. Gameplay - Minimum Frame Rate Occurrence
Click Image to Enlarge - 1024x768
Here are gameplay results at the widescreen resolution of 1920x1200 with 4X AA and with soft shadows.
Athlon 64 - F.E.A.R. Gameplay Results
With 4X AA, the minimum frame rate was 21fps with a single GeForce 7900 GTX, which increased to 31fps with SLI. With soft shadows enabled, the minimum frame rate was 19fps with a single card and 28fps with SLI.
