ATI Radeon 5870 Eyefinity6 Review - S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat (Rain)

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Call of Pripyat is the new Crysis.

Prior to the game's release, the developer put out a benchmarking tool to test your system configuration. It offers a number of different options for utilizing DX9, 10 or 11 code paths. It also offers options for varying levels of HDAO and Shadow Quality. The demo itself isn't very pretty to look at (lots of dirt and dirt-colors), but it does put a beating on your system.

The additional VRAM of the Eyefinity6 comes into play at any Eyefinity resolution. At 5760x1200 and above the Radeon HD 5970 comes to the same crawl as the original HD 5870. While there are plenty of options to dial back, the additional frame buffer of the Eyefinity6 allows the user more options on how they configure their exprience.

Hitting 60fps

60fps will be tough to achieve and still utilize all the DX10/11 goodies they are tossing at you. 30fps may be a better goal (on a single card), like with Crysis before it. Two cards and you might get the lofty 60fps, but not with max settings and certainly not with Eyefinity. I was able to achieve this balance of performance and quality, basically doubling fps. You can get a few more fps by dropping to DX10 and reducing SSAO even more, but it's only 1-2fps for a lot of quality loss.

High Preset, DX11, 4800x900, 2xAA, DX10.1 style MSAA, HDAO SSAO, Ultra SSAO, Use DX10.1, Enable Tessellation, Contact Hardening Shadows:

• Day - 25fps
• Night - 23fps
• Rain - 25fps
• Sun Shafts - 20fps