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Much like Quake 4, Serious Sam II doesn't push these graphics cards very hard like F.E.A.R. We can see both the GeForce 8600GTS and GT still manage to deliver high enough frame rates at 1024 x 768 with AA and AF. At 1280 x 960, the GeForce 8600GTS is better because it doesn't dip below 30 fps. At 1600 x 1200. you'll likely have to forgo AA alltogether on both cards. So, the difference between the two card is this - if you really need 1280 x 1024 (or 1440 x 900 - both of which is the native resolutions of many budget LCDs these days), you'll likely be more satisfied with the GeForce 8600GTS. If you're still using 1024 x 768, the GeForce 8600GT is actually a better buy. It's fast enough at that resolution and is being sold at about half the price of a GeForce 8600GTS. Now, let's see a break down of the frame rates to confirm the trend we saw on the other two games.

8600GTS

	1xAF (Trilinear)	2xAF	4xAF	8xAF	16xAF
1024
Min	77	77	74	73	70
Avg	87.9	87.19	84	81.92	80.35
Max	108	106	102	99	96
1280
Min	56	56	54	52	52
Avg	64.59	64.23	61.88	60.2	59.14
Max	79	76	72	72	70
1600
Min	40	40	39	37	37
Avg	45.54	45.12	43.69	42.46	41.7
Max	56	55	53	51	49

8600GT

	1xAF (Trilinear)	2xAF	4xAF	8xAF	16xAF
1024
Min	63	62	60	58	57
Avg	71.78	71.07	68.48	66.79	65.62
Max	89	85	82	80	78
1280
Min	46	45	44	43	42
Avg	52.76	52.16	50.15	49.07	48
Max	65	63	60	58	57
1600
Min	32	32	31	30	29
Avg	37.13	36.6	35.37	34.44	33.67
Max	46	45	43	42	41

Though the results does show anisoftropic filtering still incurs noticeably lower frame rates, the penalty is (still) minimal at lower resolutions where you likely will be using these cards (1024 x 768 and 1280 x 960 / 1024). The only difference worth mentioning seems to be the GeForce 8600GTS is still fast enough to deliver high enough frame rates (above 30 fps) at 1600 x 1200, a resolution that certainly is not really enjoyable on the GeForce 8600GT. This is different to what we saw in Quake 4 earlier.

8600GTS

	Without AA	2xAA	4xAA
1024
Min	76	64	54
Avg	87.34	75.87	65.66
Max	107	94	85
1280
Min	56	47	39
Avg	64.5	55.16	47.11
Max	79	68	62
1600
Min	39	33	27
Avg	45.5	38.52	32.83
Max	56	48	43

8600GT

	Without AA	2xAA	4xAA
1024
Min	62	51	41
Avg	72.01	59.34	49.07
Max	87	74	65
1280
Min	46	36	29
Avg	52.85	43	35.22
Max	65	54	47
1600
Min	32	25	20
Avg	37.15	29.96	24.02
Max	45	38	32

The results above seem to show another plus for choosing the GeForce 8600GTS. You can actually get away with 2x MSAA (and 16xAF) at 1600 x 1200 or 4x MSAA at 1280 x 960 with the card. However, we also need to remind you, that if you're willing to spend more than US$ 200 on a graphics card, you probably should be thinking about buying the GeForce 7950GT, the Radeon X1950 Pro or perhaps even the GeForce 8800GTS 320 MB instead.

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