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 AnandTech's Custom Demo
Our custom ~1200 frame demo is more stressful than the RanchSmall test. It doesn't feature any fire and AI is disabled. The sequence is partly running through some trees and partly running through a field. We designed the test to try and mirror some of the aspects of gameplay the built in demos didn't cover well. Because we wanted to run without AI, we didn't engage in any firefights, but this does a good job of showing another side of Far Cry 2 performance.
Aside from playing through much of a game before we test, we also like to test a few different internal benchmarks to get a feel for the numbers. Obviously we can't run everything before we commit to testing, but we try and do what we can. When using built in benchmarking tools, we also tend to favor our own tests just to avoid the possibility that a graphics chip maker would optimize for our benchmark. We don't see that as a large problem in the industry today (though it has happened before), but it's better to be safe when you can to try and maintain objectivity. And thus this will be the test we favor going forward with Far Cry 2.
With the exception of our 2560x1600 test, the Radeon HD 4870 1GB leads all single GPU configurations including the GeForce GTX 280. At 2560x1600 the 280 pulls ahead by a little more than 5%, but the fact that the 4870 is much cheaper and puts up that hard of a fight in this test is quite impressive. On the other hand, except at the lowest resolution the Radeon HD 4870 512MB card trails the GeForce GTX 260. As we saw with the built in tests, the extra 512MB of RAM makes a huge difference in Far Cry 2 with RV770.
The Radeon HD 4850 leads the slightly more expensive GeForce 9800 GTX, while the 9800 GT carries the slight advantage over the Radeon 4830. The Radeon 4670 crushes it's direct competitor (the 9600 GSO) and matches the performance of the more expensive 9600 GT at playable resoluitons. As with our other tests, while the now sub $80 4670 is capable of low res play with Ultra High quality DX10, spending less money means that you will need to drop the settings down to Very High or High quality (though you really shouldn't need to go lower than that).
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 4850.
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.