Inno3D GeForce 7950 GT iChiLL G5G3C

F.E.A.R.

Publisher: VU Games

We used the full retail version of F.E.A.R. patched to version 1.08. The game makes use of a lot of effects - including soft shadows, volumetric lighting, parallax mapping and particle effects, along with a slow-motion mode that really taxes today's top of the line GPUs. There's extensive use of high resolution textures. The walls are both bump mapped and parallax mapped to give a realistic feel to the brick walls that are a big feature of this title. Also, the world is incredibly destructible, which is made more realistic by parallax mapping.

In general, this is a graphically intense game and the most outstanding part of the graphics engine is undoubtedly the player character's shadow that is cast on the wall. It also has the most advanced A.I. that we have ever seen in a game engine to date -- there are times when you'll find yourself with your pants down around your ankles with nowhere to go.

We used the built in benchmark for our testing. Although this isn't as stressful as many portions of the game, it does give a good indication of overall game performance.


You will be able to get a decent gaming experience in F.E.A.R. at up to 1600x1200 with 4xAA, or even 1920x1200 with 2xAA. So, thankfully, you shouldn't have to turn the AA off completely at any of our tested resolutions.

Once again, the Inno3D 7950 GT stays consistently ahead of the PowerColor X1950 Pro SCS3 though both are playable all the way up to 1920x1200 -- you just might need to drop the AA down or reduce the texture details a little at the highest resolutions.