XFX GeForce GTX 260 Black Edition

When it comes to first-person shooters, post-apocalyptic adventures are a dime a dozen. But when S.T.A.L.K.E.R. was first released in the spring of 2007, it dared to be different. How? By basing the game off of a real-world tragedy, the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, which occurred way back in 1986 near the city of Prypiat in the Ukraine. Despite the disaster happening so long ago, people are still unable to live in the surrounding area, and will be unable to for at least another 150 years.

In addition to the games real-world ties, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. happened to be one of the grittiest, realistic (aside from the problematic AI) and expansive games we’ve seen on the PC in a while. Having the ability to roam as you like is a huge benefit and really helped make the game feel real. Clear Sky further delivers on what made the original so great, but at the same time, adds support for DX10.

It might be difficult to judge from the screenshot, but Clear Sky (like the original) is one of the most demanding games on the PC today, especially if you wish to play using DX10. To help push all of our GPUs to their breaking-point, we stick to that mode while using the “High” quality setting.

The humorous thing about S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is that almost all of the above results are not “playable” by my standards, except with the HD 4870 X2 on 1680×1050 and 1920×1200. Using DX10 mode is very strenuous, and it might just take a little while before affordable GPUs can handle the stress at any resolution.

With that said, like the GTX 280, the best playable setting is achieved by using the same graphics mode sans DX10 and also dropping the quality settings to Medium.