Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6800
F.E.A.R.: Low and High Resolutions
For our last set of game tests, we moved on to more in-game benchmarking with F.E.A.R. When testing processors with F.E.A.R, we drop the resolution to 640x480, and reduce all of the in-game graphical options to their minimum values to isolate CPU and memory performance as much as possible. However, the in-game "effects" and "advanced computer options" settings, which control the level of detail for F.E.A.R.'s physics engine and particle system, are left at their maximum values, since these actually do place some load on the CPU rather than GPU. Like we did with Quake 4 on the previous page, we also ran a set of number with F.E.A.R. running at high-resolution with additional pixel processing enabled to asses performance in a typical high-end gaming scenario.
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The low-res versus high-res performance trend with F.E.A.R. is exactly the opposite of the Quake 4 results on the previous page. With F.E.A.R. running in low-resolution/low-quality mode, the quad-Core Intel processors jump out to a commanding lead, specifically the QX6800 which is the only chip to break the 300FPS mark. Conversely, with the game running in a more demanding high-resolution/high-quality mode, which heavily taxes the graphics subsystem, the graph levels out and only a couple of frames per second separate the different configurations.
