System setup

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 (2.4GHz)

ASUS P5W DH Deluxe (for ATI cards)
EVGA nForce 680i motherboard (for NVIDIA cards)

2GB Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400C4

ATI Radeon X1800 XT 512MB
ATI Radeon X1800 GTO 256MB
ATI Radeon X1300 XT 256MB
ATI Radeon X1600 Pro 256MB
ATI Radeon X1650 XT 256MB
ATI Radeon X1900 GT 256MB
Sapphire Radeon X1950 GT 256MB
ATI Radeon X1900 XT 256MB
Catalyst 7.2

NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT
NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS
NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS 256MB
NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT 256MB
NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GS 256MB
NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GT 256MB
EVGA e-GeForce 7900 GTO 512MB
NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GT 512MB
ForceWare 93.71

ASUS GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB
ForceWare 97.92

300GB Western Digital Caviar SE

Windows XP Professional SP2

Notes

We ran all of our tests with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. using the same system we used previously in games like Oblivion: we load up a predefined area (from a saved game) and use FRAPS to record performance. We repeat this test three times and take the average for our final result, rounding up when necessary. Rather than test a variety of areas, for this test we’re testing in an area that mixes in a fair amount of foliage with a wide open space. Basically our test involves running down a set path where the environment goes from a densely vegetated forest (which hurts frame rate) into a more open environment. Once again we’re using this user.ltx text file for our testing. We like this config because it allowed our mainstream cards to deliver very playable performance without severely affecting IQ, for instance we’ve got full dynamic lighting and the game looks great.