Core i7 vs. Phenom II X2 vs. X4 scaling performance analysis

F.E.A.R.

F.E.A.R. – First Encounter Armed Assault – is a DX9c game by Monolith Productions that was originally released in October 2005 by Vivendi Universal Production. Later, there were two expansions with the latest, Perseus Mandate, released in 2007. Although the game engine is aging, it still has some of the most spectacular effects of any game. F.E.A.R. showcases a powerful particle system, complete with sparks and smoke for collisions as well as featuring bullet marks and other effects including “soft shadows”.  This is highlighted by the built-in performance test, although it was never updated.

This performance test will tell you how F.E.A.R. will run, but both of its expansions are progressively more demanding on your PC graphics and will run slower than the demo. We always run at least two sets of tests with all in-game features at ‘maximum’. F.E.A.R. uses the Jupiter Extended Technology engine from Touchdown Entertainment. We test this game with the most demanding settings. We use fully maxed details with 4xAA/16xAF; soft shadows ‘off’, as they do not play well with AA. Please note that we tossed out our maximums as they are ridiculously high and contribute nothing to the charts. Let’s start first at 2560×1600:

Let’s now check out 1920×1200 resolution with the same maxed out settings:

Now we move on to 1680×1050:

There is not much difference in practically playing F.E.A.R. between the fastest and the slowest CPUs as the minimums are already sufficiently high except for one place where our underclocked Phenom II 955-X4 at 2.6 GHz has difficulty with the minimums with HD 5870 CrossFire. There is also no real advantage of quad-core over dual-core in this aging but still beautiful, DX9 game.