S.TA.L.K.E.R. is a very demanding game graphically, but fortunately you can get good frame rates with the game with today’s latest mainstream graphics cards. You can find GeForce 7600 GS cards for right around $100 at many online retailers, while PriceGrabber listings for the Radeon X1300 XT start under $100. Unfortunately neither of these cards were quite able to hit what we’d consider playable frame rates with dynamic lighting enabled, but with a few more tweaks to our config file and a little bit of overclocking (the 7600 GS can typically hit 7600 GT speeds especially with better cooling) we think frame rates in the 30 fps range would have been possible, especially at 1280x1024.
If you can afford to spend $150, the Radeon X1950 GT is pretty hard to beat at that price point for S.TA.L.K.E.R. The X1950 GT isn’t quite as fast as its predecessor, the X1900 GT, but as we discussed in our Sapphire X1950 GT review, these cards are based on the exact same GPU used in the X1950 Pro, so it’s not hard to get more performance out of these chips with a little bit of overclocking. In the US Sapphire is the only board partner bringing the X1950 GT to market at this point, while in Europe and Asia Palit and TUL are the sole card manufacturers. NVIDIA’s GeForce 7900 GS also performs well, but at stock speeds it isn’t quite as fast as the Radeon X1950 GT. A factory overclocked 7900 GS card would no doubt fare better in S.TA.L.K.E.R.
Moving higher up the price bracket, the Radeon X1900 XT 256MB and GeForce 7900 GTO really stand out. Unfortunately neither one of these cards can be found either online or at retail very easily anymore, they’ve basically been replaced by the Radeon X1950 XT 256MB and the GeForce 7950 GT. We don’t have a Radeon X1950 XT 256MB for testing, but considering that the X1900 XT 256MB outperformed the GeForce 7950 GT, the X1950 XT 256MB should be the faster card. Of course, keep in mind that the GeForce 7950 GT we tested was running at stock speeds, and many of NVIDIA’s board partners have chosen to overclock their 7950 GT cards from the factory for enhanced performance, so it’s quite possible that one of these OC’ed 7950 GT boards could give the ATI card a run for its money.
Sitting alone at the very upper echelon of the mainstream graphics cards we tested is NVIDIA’s GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB. Clearly the GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB is the fastest sub-$300 graphics card you can buy for S.TA.L.K.E.R. today; with the card delivering performance that was over 25% greater than the next closest competitor at 1600x1200. It really isn’t even close. Besides performance, the GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB has other intangibles going for it such as its added AA modes and low noise. It really is a great card for the gamer on a strict sub-$300 budget.
Surprisingly enough, AA quality is pretty much a wash between the GeForce 7 and equivalent Radeon cards right now in S.TA.L.K.E.R. With their support for HDR+AA, we expected the Radeon X1K cards to have an obvious advantage here, but it looks like GSC isn’t enabling AA for anyone in HDR mode at this point. Considering that Unreal Engine 3 games with HDR like Rainbow Six: Vegas also lack support for HDR+AA, GSC isn’t alone here, but we’d like to see more game devs taking advantage of this feature, particularly since more powerful DX10 cards are becoming more readily available.
However one area where the Radeon cards still have the advantage over GeForce 7 is in AF quality. As we’ve noted in the past, the GeForce cards shimmer under the default “Quality” image quality mode set by NVIDIA. To reduce the shimmering, you’ll want to adjust the image quality setting to “High Quality”. This turns off the filtering optimizations which cause the texture shimmering. Fortunately though the shimmering isn’t that noticeable in most environments, it really only stands out on long, flat objects like roads. Therefore if you haven’t noticed it in the past, you probably won’t see it in S.TA.L.K.E.R. either.
So that does it for Part 1 of our S.TA.L.K.E.R. performance eval. In Part 2 we’ll be taking a look at high-end cards, and in Part 3 we’ll examine CPU performance. Supposedly S.TA.L.K.E.R. takes advantage of quad-core CPUs. We’ll be putting this to the test shortly!
Batman: Arkham City PC Review Batman: Arkham City is the sequel to 2009’s smash-hit action game Batman: Arkham Asylum. As the name suggests, you will be reprising your role as the Caped Crusader and going against an even larger 'prison' filled with Gotham's criminals and villains. A textbook example on how to do a proper sequel, Arkham City takes what worked in the original, excised or improved upon what didn’t, and elevated everything to an even greater scope. The PC version suffered from a few months of delay, but in that time, Rocksteady worked closely to NVIDIA to implement some familiar technologies from the last game, such as PhysX and 3D Vision, along with new DirectX 11 optimizations. But how well was the whole package executed? Read on to find out!
Saints Row: The Third PC Review Saints Row is one of most unique series of games to build upon the open-world action template forged by Grand Theft Auto, and has met with plenty of critical and commercial success since it began on consoles back in 2006. This latest iteration, titled Saints Row: The Third promises the most outlandish fun and freedom of customization of them all, and in a much more PC-friendly package than its predecessor. Does it live up to those expectations and, more importantly, is it worth the price of admission? Find out in Will's latest review!
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim PC Review The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is Bethesda Softworks’ latest offering in their series of epic fantasy RPGs, as well as one of the most highly-anticipated PC titles of 2011. As the Dovahkiin, or Dragonborn, prepare to take the fight to the mythical beasts that have returned to the realm after centuries of slumber, all the while exploring a huge and highly-detailed open world.
The PC version of the game promises enhanced graphical fidelity, standard RPG trimmings such as hotkeys and quick-save, as well as unbridled mod support, something we’ll all be thankful for once they release that SDK. Skyrim has already sold millions of copies and set records for play-time on Steam... Find out why in today's review, which happens to be one of the biggest and most in-depth articles on the subject out there!
L.A. Noire Complete Edition PC Review L.A. Noire, as the name clearly states, is a video game built on the tropes of one of the greatest periods of American cinema: film noir. Developed by the now defunct Australian developer Team Bondi and published by Rockstar Games, this title has been out on consoles for a full six months before finally making its way to the PC. This “Complete Edition” of the game features improved graphics, keyboard/mouse controls, and every bit of previously-released DLC for free. But was it truly worth the wait? Read on and find out!
Intel Core i7-3960X Sandy Bridge-E Performance Review
Today marks the launch date for Intel’s Sandy Bridge-E line of processors, a new family of high-end Core i7 products based on the LGA 2011 platform. This new socket is poised to replace the existing LGA 1366 specification used by the more powerful Nehalem and Westmere parts from the past couple years, specifically Bloomfield and Gulftown, the Core i7-9xx+ line of CPUs.
With 6 cores, 15MB of cache, and support for quad-channel DDR3-1600 memory, the Core i7-3960X sounds like quite a catch. Want to know more about it and how it performs? Read on!
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Xbox 360 Review
The self-appointed "most anticipated game in history" launched worldwide this past Tuesday. Why, it's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, of course (of course), what else? Unsurprisingly, the military FPS debate between this and Battlefield 3 rages on, but now that both have been released, surely we can take a look and objectively evaluate them both? Luke's taken the Xbox version of MW3 for a spin this week, so to find out what he thinks of it in today's review!
Stronghold 3 Review
The latest sequel in the long-running real-time strategy franchise from FireFly Studios, Stronghold 3 is all about building your dream castle and defending it against sieging enemies. Almost exactly one decade after the first game was released, this new title promises a return to the classic and well-received gameplay that has been strayed so far from in more recent iterations. Does it live up to those expectations? Will (AKA Synchronous Failure) tells us all about it in his first official FiringSquad review, so read on!
Battlefield 3 PC Review - Single-player Impressions
One of the most highly-anticipated PC games of the year is upon us; Battlefield 3 is now available in North America! EA/DICE have finally delivered a sequel to the core Battlefield franchise, a proper follow-up to BF2. Having played through the game's single-player campaign already, ahead of the multiplayer festivities kicking off around midnight, I figured I'd share my impressions ASAP. Is it really a worthy addition to the core Battlefield series, or just another bullet point on the back of the box? Read on and find out!
Wrecked: Revenge Revisited Supersonic Software Interview
Following up on our hands-on preview from earlier this month, here's an interview with Supersonic Software, creators of Wrecked: Revenge Revisited. The game's coming out on XBLA and PSN in a matter of weeks, but for now, Luke chats with the developer about its predecessors Mashed and Micro Machines, how difficult it can be to get an indie game published, the closure of Codemasters' Guildford branch, and more!
Orcs Must Die! PC Review Orcs Must Die! is the first release from an independent developer named Robot Entertainment. Fans of classic real-time strategy games may have heard that name before, as the outfit is comprised of many veterans from Ensemble Studios, creators of the Age of Empires series.
Equal parts action and strategy, this is a tower defense game that not only puts you in command, but on the front lines of combat, as well. Slaughter thousands of orcs, ogres and other vile creatures of fantasy that invade your fortresses through 24 levels of the story-based campaign. With high levels of replayability thanks to its scoring and leaderboard functionality, multiple difficulty levels, and various styles of play, it sounds a steal at only $15. Does it deliver on all that’s promised, though? Read on and find out!
SLI/CrossFire Performance
Digg
Del.icio.us
Reddit
SU
furl
