- Single player physics: Max
- Multiplayer physics: Max
- Software sounds: Med
- Particle bouncing: Med
- Shell casings: On
- World detail: Max
- Corpse detail: Max
- Effects details: Max
- Model decals: Max
- Water resolution: Max
- Reflections & displays: Max
- Volumetric lights: On
- Volumetric light density: Med
- FSAA: Off
- Light detail: Max
- Enable shadows: On
- Soft shadow: Off
- Texture filter: AF 4x
- Texture resolution: Max
- Video resolution: Max
- Resolution: 1024 x 768
- Shader: Max
Flip all the settings to max at the same resolution and you get a much different set of results. With soft shadows and 4x AA and 16x AF running 1024 x 768 the minimum frame rate was 20 FPS, the average frame rate was 36 FPS and the maximum frame rate was 76 FPS. That means that 14% of the time frame rates were below 25 FPS, 61% of the time frame rates were 25-40 FPS and a mere 25% of the time were frame rates above 40 FPS. At these settings the XFX 7900 GS Extreme struggled, but most cards do. Only two single card solutions flew through maximum settings FEAR, the XFX 7950 GX2 and the ATI X1900 XTX which will both cost you well over the MSRP of the 7900 GS.
Final Thoughts on the XFX 7900 GS Extreme
If you are a gamer not looking to drop large sums of money on a graphics card, but still want performance the XFX 7900 GS Extreme is the best price for performance card on the block. It walks all over the outgoing 7600 GT and slaps the ATI X1800 GTO so hard your could hear it over Kyra Phillips’ bathroom talk.
Boxing fans always talk about the best pound-for-pound fighter to try and even the playing field from different weight classes. If we apply the same method to graphics cards, XFX and Nvidia currently have the best pound-for-pound graphics card on the market. Nothing in the same price class comes close to performing as well as the 7900 GS Extreme edition. It's as simple as that.
