Sierra FEAR 1.08	Source: Sierra

FEAR is Sierra's latest first person shooter which relies heavily on DirectX 9 features. With its "Soft Shadows" feature enabled, even the fastest videocards run at a crawl, FEAR is definitely the new benchmark for future FPS games to follow.

Higher results are better.

Sierra FEAR 1.08 No AA - Windows Vista 640x480 LQ (FPS) Ranking Intel Core i7 920 701 Intel Core i5 750 639 Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 757 Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 713 AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition (140W) 734 AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition (125W) 597 AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition 711 AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition (DDR2) 632 AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition (DDR3) 642 AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition 667 AMD Athlon II X4 620 368 AMD Athlon II X3 435 426 AMD Athlon II X2 250 536 AMD Athlon II X2 240e 419 800x600 LQ (FPS) Ranking Intel Core i7 920 692 Intel Core i5 750 636 Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 752 Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 689 AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition (140W) 719 AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition (125W) 591 AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition 703 AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition (DDR2) 590 AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition (DDR3) 597 AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition 654 AMD Athlon II X4 620 365 AMD Athlon II X3 435 421 AMD Athlon II X2 250 526 AMD Athlon II X2 240e 412 1024x768 LQ (FPS) Ranking Intel Core i7 920 673 Intel Core i5 750 626 Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 722 Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 572 AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition (140W) 694 AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition (125W) 590 AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition 667 AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition (DDR2) 483 AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition (DDR3) 491 AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition 636 AMD Athlon II X4 620 362 AMD Athlon II X3 435 420 AMD Athlon II X2 250 496 AMD Athlon II X2 240e 411

FEAR seems to have some problems with the 125W version of the Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition, although given Crysis' nearly identical performance between the 140W and 125W versions of these processors, it's likely this performance gap is application-specific.

Sierra FEAR 1.08 No AA - Windows 7 640x480 LQ (FPS) Ranking Intel Core i7 920 648 Intel Core i5 750 606 Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 658 AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition (140W) 673 AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition (125W) 733 AMD Athlon II X4 620 400 AMD Athlon II X3 435 424 AMD Athlon II X2 240e 417 800x600 LQ (FPS) Ranking Intel Core i7 920 643 Intel Core i5 750 597 Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 650 AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition (140W) 664 AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition (125W) 723 AMD Athlon II X4 620 391 AMD Athlon II X3 435 415 AMD Athlon II X2 240e 411 1024x768 LQ (FPS) Ranking Intel Core i7 920 644 Intel Core i5 750 593 Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 645 AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition (140W) 656 AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition (125W) 695 AMD Athlon II X4 620 391 AMD Athlon II X3 435 414 AMD Athlon II X2 240e 410

And in Windows 7 that fluctuation not only corrects itself but compensates in the opposite direction. Now that PCSTATS has wrapped up the benchmark set, let's put the more power-efficient 125W AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition into perspective for you.

Is $195 for AMD's flagship processor a good buy?