Video cards

F.E.A.R. Performance

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 EAX1950PRO 256MB certainly excels at it, and posts scores well ahead of both the GeForce 7900 GS and 7900 GT cards. This goes back to base architecture of the Radeon X1000 cards being tuned towards high-end SM3.0 games and applications. The ASUS card is still not in the same league as the GeForce 7950 GT 512MB, but that is to be expected, and the overall performance rates are very impressive for such a demanding game benchmark.

F.E.A.R. AA and AF Performance

The overall trend remains consistent at 4X AA and 8X AF detail settings, and the ASUS EAX1950PRO 256MB is again firmly in second place, ahead of the GeForce 7900 GS and 7900 GT cards - not that far back of the GeForce 7950 GT.

Company of Heroes Performance

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. It is also potentially the best showcase for the ASUS EAX1950PRO 256MB, as the card easily outruns the GeForce 7900 GS and 7900 GT boards. Even better, the ASUS card puts the screws to the GeForce 7950 GT at 1600x1200, squeezing out a tight win.

Company of Heroes AA and AF Performance

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. Even so, the news gets even better for the ASUS EAX1950PRO 256MB, as it finishes slightly ahead of the GeForce 7950 GT at both 1280x1024 and 1600x1200.