ATI Radeon 5850 & 5830 Review - S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat (Daylight)

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.

Though the 5850 and 5830 perform admirably in widescreen resolutions, they simply cannot handle S.T.A.L.K.E.R. in Eyefinity. This should come as no surprise, as even the Eyefinity6 in CrossFireX never hit 30fps at 5760x1200. Like the Heaven demo, the CoP demo is intended to tax your system. Both of these are strong examples of how much more data is being pushed through an Eyefinity setup.

Hitting 60fps

Hitting even 30fps isn't possible on the 5850 or 5830 with DX10 or DX11 effects. I was able to crack 30fps by dropping all the way back to DX9 code path and features.

High Preset, DX11, 4800x900, 2xAA, DX10.1 style MSAA, HDAO SSAO, Ultra SSAO, Use DX10.1:

• Day - 21fps
• Night - 18fps
• Rain - 19fps
• Sun Shafts - 16fps