Autumn 2009 Graphics Card Upgrade Guide

Written by Harry Butler

October 1, 2009 | 11:59

Tags: #5870 #fastest-graphics-card #graphics-card #hd-5870 #new-ati-graphics-card #radeon #upgrade

Companies: #ati #bit-tech #nvidia

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky

Publisher: Deep Silver

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky is the prequel to GSC Game World's sleeper hit S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl and was unfortunately released in a bizarrely unfinished state and it's taken some time for the game to reach the levels of stability that we expect from a game. However, with the new 1.5.07 patch, Clear Sky runs great and as you would expect it to.

Clear Sky uses a heavily tweaked version of the X-Ray engine, which debuted with Shadow of Chernobyl and was updated to support several new graphical effects using DirectX 10 (and later DirectX 10.1 through the 1.5.06 patch). The improvements include enhanced visual effects like 'God Rays', wet surfaces, volumetric light and smoke, depth of field blurring, and screen space ambient occlusion lighting as well as better textures.

We used a custom timedemo for our testing, which incorporates many of the advanced effects introduced with DirectX 10 – we also enabled DirectX 10.1 on the Radeons. However, due to the intensity of engine, we have set the in game details to "High" instead of "Maximum" and have left anti-aliasing disabled for the time being.

Autumn 2009 Graphics Card Upgrade Guide S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky Autumn 2009 Graphics Card Upgrade Guide S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky Autumn 2009 Graphics Card Upgrade Guide S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky
Click to enlarge

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky

1,280 x 1,024 0xAA 16xAF, DirectX 10/10.1, High Detail

  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB
  • ATI Radeon HD 5870 1GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 1,792MB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 285 1GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 275 896MB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4890 1GB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 260-216 896MB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB
  • Nvidia GeForce 8800GT 512MB
    • 77.0
    • 57.0
    • 69.0
    • 53.0
    • 73.0
    • 48.0
    • 50.0
    • 37.0
    • 47.0
    • 33.0
    • 45.0
    • 33.0
    • 43.0
    • 31.0
    • 40.0
    • 29.0
    • 31.0
    • 24.0
    • 29.0
    • 18.0
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Frames Per Second
  • Average
  • Minimum

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky

1,680 x 1,050 0xAA 16xAF, DirectX 10/10.1, High Detail

  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 1,792MB
  • ATI Radeon HD 5870 1GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 285 1GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 275 896MB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4890 1GB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 260-216 896MB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB
  • Nvidia GeForce 8800GT 512MB
    • 63.0
    • 45.0
    • 59.0
    • 42.0
    • 57.0
    • 42.0
    • 38.0
    • 27.0
    • 37.0
    • 26.0
    • 36.0
    • 24.0
    • 34.0
    • 23.0
    • 32.0
    • 22.0
    • 26.0
    • 18.0
    • 23.0
    • 17.0
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Frames Per Second
  • Average
  • Minimum

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky

1,920 x 1,200 0xAA 16xAF, DirectX 10/10.1, High Detail

  • ATI Radeon HD 5870 1GB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 1,792MB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4890 1GB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 275 896MB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 285 1GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 260-216 896MB
  • Nvidia GeForce 8800GT 512MB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB
    • 49.0
    • 39.0
    • 57.0
    • 37.0
    • 50.0
    • 34.0
    • 36.0
    • 25.0
    • 31.0
    • 23.0
    • 30.0
    • 23.0
    • 31.0
    • 21.0
    • 26.0
    • 20.0
    • 19.0
    • 15.0
    • 23.0
    • 10.0
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Frames Per Second
  • Average
  • Minimum

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky

2,560 x 1,600 0xAA 16xAF, DirectX 10/10.1, High Detail

  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB
  • ATI Radeon HD 5870 1GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 1,792MB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4890 1GB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 275 896MB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 285 1GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 260-216 896MB
  • Nvidia GeForce 8800GT 512MB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB
    • 36.0
    • 27.0
    • 32.0
    • 24.0
    • 33.0
    • 23.0
    • 21.0
    • 16.0
    • 20.0
    • 15.0
    • 19.0
    • 15.0
    • 20.0
    • 15.0
    • 16.0
    • 12.0
    • 11.0
    • 8.0
    • 14.0
    • 6.0
0
10
20
30
40
Frames Per Second
  • Average
  • Minimum

For analysis of these and all other results, please read the Results Analysis page.
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