Premium/High-End Category

Using all the advanced capabilities of X-Ray Engine 1.5 is too hard a task even for the most advanced multi-GPU solutions available today, let alone single, even though premium-class, graphics cards. None of the graphics subsystems provides an acceptable speed even at 1280x1024. Considering the good scalability of ATI’s technology, we suspect a 4-way Radeon HD 4870 CrossFireX would do that, but the price and power consumption of such a subsystem are beyond reasonable.

However, the results indicate one thing: the use of the advanced DirectX 10 capabilities helps ATI’s solutions get an advantage as their architecture is suited better for such work. Nvidia has no superiority in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. anymore.

Performance-Mainstream Category

Nvidia is competitive in this category. The GeForce 9800 GTX+ is but slightly slower than the Radeon HD 4850 whereas the GeForce GTX 260 is comparable to the Radeon HD 4870 at 1280x1024. Anyway, the average and bottom speed of every card of this class is so low that you can’t play the game normally unless you disable some effects and lower the level of detail.

Mainstream Category

Every card from this category is slow, but we have a winner. The GeForce 9800 GT outperforms the Radeon HD 4830 by 35-40%. We don’t know the reason for the poor results of the Radeon HD 4830. Perhaps it just has too few texture processors that are also clocked at a rather low frequency.