Gainward Bliss 7300 GT Golden Sample

F.E.A.R.

F.E.A.R. is a game based on an engine that uses many features of DirectX 9.0c.

It has volumetric lighting, soft shadows, parallax mapping and particle effects, with a slow-motion mode that really taxes today’s GPU’s. I fully patched version the game with the latest patch. I played three two-minute runs on a taxing part of the game with plenty of action, using slow-motion for the full time whilst firing at enemy soldiers and using grenades that produce a cool “blast” contortion effect when blown up.

As stated, I tried for the closest to 1280 x 1024 possible while looking as good as possible. Here are the settings used in-game:

Here are the general settings I managed to play F.E.A.R. with:

Here are the minimum, maximum and average FPS:

F.E.A.R is a very testing game and I did not quite manage to get the card running F.E.A.R at 1280 x 1024. If you play F.E.A.R. a lot then you will have to consider a more expensive GPU. If, however, you play F.E.A.R. occasionally or maybe just want to know that your GPU can play F.E.A.R. and look good then it definitely does the job.

Call of Duty 2

Call of Duty 2 is a fairly recent game that uses a lot of DirectX 9.0c features, including real time shadows, amazing smoke effects and some nice looking HDR effects. This makes the game very taxing. I played a fully patched up version of the game. Once again I played through the game with a two minute gaming session including explosions, smoke and also lots of snow.

As stated, I tried for the closest to 1280 x 1024 possible while looking as good as possible. Here are the settings used in-game:

Here are the general settings I managed to play CoD 2 with:

Here are the minimum, maximum and average FPS:

I was highly impressed that the 7300GT attained the target resolution and played the game so smoothly. This is a very challenging game and still looks great even with some features turned down a bit.