Introducing AMD’s “Turks” – HD 6670 and HD 6570
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. Let’s start first at 2560×1600:
These two new cards are completely overwhelmed by this game at 2560×1600. It is not so old that F.E.A.R. cannot put a real hurt on entry-level gaming cards. We see the new HD 6790 faster is than the GTX 550 Ti and it completely overwhelms its replacement, the HD 5770. However, the GTX 460 plays a spoiler. Neither the GTX 450 nor the HD 5770 can play F.E.A.R. at the highest resolution whereas the GTX 560 Ti and GTX 460 are fine.
Let’s look at 1920×100:
At 1920×1200 resolution there is a lot of difference in practically playing F.E.A.R. between the fastest and the slowest video configurations as the minimums determine smooth gameplay. However, in this old DX9 game, the GTX 550 Ti is slightly faster than the HD 6790 and it takes at least a HD 5770 or a GTS 450 to give satisfactory game play. The two new Radeons would have to not only drop resolution, they would also have to drop details or AA although the overclocked HD 6670 comes close.
great review mark! Huge piles of data, thats what i love about the abt. I totally agree with your conclusion which is spot on. Given the gts450 and hd5770 may not be around for much longer these cards should be a great option in the future but for now there are some really nice price/performance options in the same bracket and they just dont shine through them. In time they may fall in place when some of these killer deals from the last generation slowly slip out of the picture.