Well I got a chance to run some benches on Tomb Raider.
Not going to make an official entry though, with my 4:3 res.
X6-1100T @ 3.8 w/ 2.6 NB, 2x2GB 1066, 6950 @ 875/1300
These were all run without v-sync (FPS already below refresh) and blur (I loath blur)
.....1600x1200.....1920x1440.....2048x1536
Run 1--------------------------------------
Min......26..............20.8................12
Max....40.8...............35................28
Avg......34..............26.9..............17.9
Run 2--------------------------------------
Min.....27.2..............20.1.............11.8
Max.....42.................33..............31.1
Avg....34.8..............26.5.............19.1
Run 3--------------------------------------
Min......27.2.............21.4..............11.7
Max.....43.3.............35.8..............28.2
Avg.....34.8..............27.3.............18.6
Without screen effect (curious, I couldn't see any differences in effects)
Min......26.4.............20.7.............13.2
Max.....43.4..............34................26
Avg.....34.4..............27.1.............18.9
And without tress-fx (interestingly the ultra pre-set)
Min.......43.4..............35..............30.1
Max......64.2.............47.2.............42.8
Avg......54.6.............41.7.............37.5
Tress-fx makes a noticeable difference because the default hair was poorly done (IMO).
Makes a big difference in performance too. I didn't like how the tress-fx hair cut through the neck, default hair had less "collision" issues.
Another thing that bothered me was the terrible shadows when tress-fx was on. The default hair had fairly smooth accurate shadows, while tress-fx had fat block very aliased shadows that were distracting.
Decided to try to improve the shadow detail:
1920x1440 AF 8 (vs 16 on ultimate) ultra shadow (vs high) and 4xSSA (vs txa)
I got 9.4 min, 18.9 max, and 14.4 avg, frames and no real improvement in shadow detail.
Also tried high settings with tress-fx on at 1920x1440 for better FPS, I got:
27.2 min, 44.7 max, 36.6 avg, but it looked much worse vs 1600x1200 ultimate.
I think that's probably where I will try to run it, at 16x12 ultimate...as long as minimums stay close to the 30FPS mark. Dunno how well the benchmark translates to game.