F.E.A.R. (or First Encounter Assault Recon) is a one of the newer entrants to our game benchmark suite, and it features jaw-dropping graphics, a killer Matrix-like "reflex time" feature, and a physics engine that can bring any system to its knees. This Monolith production includes a wide selection of System and Video settings, along with an in-game testing module to keep things 100% comparable between different graphics cards. In this case, as we are dealing with video card performance, so we have racked the computer and graphics settings to high (max only increases AF and AA) and then testing at the different resolutions.
F.E.A.R. is potentially the most demanding game benchmark in our entire suite, and its overall design rewards both pure graphics performance and an SM 2.0/3.0 feature set. The ASUS EAX1650XT 256MB shows off its architecture in this game benchmark, moving ahead of the GeForce 7600 GT at 1280x960 and equaling it at 1600x1200. The framerates are even good when compared to the higher-end Radeon X1800 XL and GeForce 7600 GT cards, and the ASUS EAX1650XT 256MB certainly proves itself a contender with newer games like F.E.A.R..
The overall framerates drop back with 4X AA and 8X AF options, but the overall ranking of the ASUS EAX1650XT 256MB only gets better. Now, it outpaces the GeForce 7600 GT at both 1280x960 and 1600x1200 resolutions, and again shows that its base architecture is tuned towards high-end SM3.0 games and applications.
Company of Heroes is yet another new addition to our game benchmark suite, and as a newly-released product, it offers one of the most demanding benchmark environments ever. CoH is a WW2 real-time strategy game, which again provides us with a nice change of pace from the usual FPS benchmark. To give the video cards an even tougher time, we have enabled SM3.0, and set every available graphics option to High.
Company of Heroes is another recent addition to our game benchmarking suite, and its performance test can bring even mainstream video cards to their knees. The ASUS EAX1650XT 256MB certainly doesn't seem fazed, posting some very impressive scores for its class. The ASUS card blows by the GeForce 6800 GS, while building up a nice performance gap over the GeForce 7600 GT.
Since Company of Heroes places such a strain on the video hardware, the effect of increasing AA and AF settings doesn't have the same power it does in other games. Overall performance results show much the same story as in the last test, and the ASUS EAX1650XT 256MB really struts its stuff against the GeForce 7600 GT and all the other entry-level and mainstream competitors.
