Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6800

Name: Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6800 - Page 9
Brand: Intel

by Marco Chiappetta — Sunday, April 08, 2007, 11:00 AM EDT

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.

Benchmarks with F.E.A.R. v1.08

DirectX 9 Gaming Performance

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.

Tags: Intel, Core 2, Core, Xtreme, extreme, x6, XT, 680, eme, QX

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com