Far Cry 2 Dissected: Massive Amounts of Performance Data
by Derek Wilson on November 21, 2008 5:30 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Testing with RanchSmall
Our first test is with the built in RanchSmall demo. We did not run this as a timedemo. Again, this means that the camera follows a fixed path for a fixed amount of time and the game renders frames as fast as it can simulating game play. As for settings, we ran in DX10 mode with Ultra High quality and no antialiasing. AI was disabled, and we ran each test 3 times (the default). All driver options were left on their default settings except that we use centered timing for the display so that we can tell by looking at it what resolution is running.
The built in RanchSmall test is the one NVIDIA recommended we test with (AMD didn't recommend a particular test to us). We chose this test because it's the shortest built in demo and we wanted to acquire lots of data.
Generally, the GeForce GTX 280 leads the way followed by the Radeon HD 4870 1GB which performs essentially on par with the two GTX 260 parts. The 512MB variant of the 4870 suffers heavily from its limited framebuffer falling behind the two NVIDIA GTX 260 cards. The 4850 leads the 9800 GTX where it counts, and sometimes the 4830 is good competition for it as well. The 9800 GT comes in ahead of the 4670, which essentially performs on par with the 9600 GT.
With these settings running this test, everything from the Radeon HD 4670 / GeForce 9600 GT and up is playable at 1280x1024. The lower end hardware we tested doesn't post playable scores even at 1024x768, so less than Ultra High quality would be recommended for those parts. Dropping into DX9 mode would definitely make playability possible, while dropping back to Very High Quality DX10 might not provide enough of a boost.
SLI with the GT200 based parts shows very good scaling with at least a 75% improvement in framerate. We can't compare this to CrossFire at this point because of driver level consistency and performance issues. Without AA, GT200 SLI isn't taxed at all.
The cheapest playable card at 1024x768 with these settings is the Radeon HD 4670.
The cheapest playable card at 1280x1024 with these settings is the Radeon HD 4670.
The cheapest playable card at 1680x1050 with these settings is the GeForce 9800 GT.
The cheapest playable card at 1920x1200 with these settings is the Radeon HD 4830.
The cheapest playable card at 2560x1600 with these settings is the GeForce GTX 260.
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Brunnis - Saturday, November 22, 2008 - link
I just wanted to point out that my HD4870 1GB stutters to the extreme with this game. I'm running an E8400 @ 3.8GHz, 8GB RAM and Vista 64-bit. It's however worth pointing out that there is no stuttering in DX9, only DX10. I've tried Cats 8.10, the second hotfix and now Cats 8.11. All have exactly the same problem, with horrible stuttering in DX10. The graphs from the benchmark tool clearly illustrate the issue with frequent spikes in them.I also have a friend with a HD4870 1GB and he has experienced the exact same problems. So, the HD4870 is definitely affected by AMD's shoddy drivers.
DerekWilson - Monday, November 24, 2008 - link
the "stuttering" in the benchmark is part of the benchmark -- it just plays back with stutters in it. it's like that no nv, amd -- all GPUs. the only stuttering that is actually stuttering is what you experience in the game.the fps versus frame graphs on my 4870 1GB are smooth, while other cards show spikes.
Slash3 - Saturday, November 22, 2008 - link
What resolution and graphic settings are you using? Is there a particular setting or gameplay situation that makes it worse?Giacomo - Saturday, November 22, 2008 - link
The stuttering issue, with my HIS HD3870 ICEQ3 (running all the latest Catalysts, on Vista x64), shows up at any resolution and quality settings under DX10. The problem shows up when you move around in the scenario: if you just stand, and look around, no stuttering; if you walk, a little stuttering sometimes; if you run, it gets worse; if you drive a car, it's horrible.Giacomo
RagingDragon - Saturday, November 22, 2008 - link
Sounds like it's loading textures (or some other data) from main memory into video memory. For some reason they aren't being preloaded, or are being bumped from video RAM then have to be reloaded. That would also explain why the 512MB have worse issues than 1GB cards.Slash3 - Saturday, November 22, 2008 - link
Would it be possible to make available the custom demo created for this benchmark? A page describing the test setup for the benchmark systems would also be greatly appreciated. Thanks!Willardjuice - Saturday, November 22, 2008 - link
I don't have any issues running the game with my R700 using the second 8.10 hotfixes.4ccmusic - Saturday, November 22, 2008 - link
Did anyone say this was the biggest let down of this year. If I wanted a game like GTA, I would get GTA.toyota - Saturday, November 22, 2008 - link
I have only played about two hours and I think I have had enough. Its a failure in my book.Amuro - Saturday, November 22, 2008 - link
I have a GTX 280 tri SLI system, so the game runs very good. However, I stopped playing it after just an hour of play. The graphics are a joke, not even half as good as Crysis and Warhead, and not to mention the entire game world has an ugly orange/yellow mixed with brown tint to it.