Post Processing On/Off

Besides switching from high to medium detail, if you want to improve your performance further, you can disable the high detail post-processing setting. According to the game manual, this setting provides “bloom effects: bright lights and bright surfaces bloom out”.

You can see some examples here (note that these shots were all taken with the medium quality graphics setting):

BioShock w/High detail post processing on

BioShock w/High detail post processing off

BioShock w/High detail post processing on

BioShock w/High detail post processing off

BioShock w/High detail post processing on

BioShock w/High detail post processing off

BioShock High Detail Post Processing On


BioShock High Detail Post Processing Off


BioShock High Detail Post Processing On


BioShock High Detail Post Processing Off


BioShock High Detail Post Processing On


BioShock High Detail Post Processing Off


Some of you may actually prefer to turn this setting off. The bloom effect may simply be too much for some gamers. It would be nice if you could adjust the intensity of this setting, perhaps Irrational may consider adding this option sometime in the future.



What kind of performance boost can you get from disabling high detail post processing? We tested with the setting on and off and obtained the following results at 1600x1200:

BioShock Performance 1600x1200x32
Card	Min FPS	Max FPS
GeForce 8600 GTS Postprocessoff	24	59
GeForce 8600 GTS Postprocesson	22	49
GeForce 8600 GT Postprocessoff	21	52
GeForce 8600 GT Postprocesson	19	42
GeForce 8500 GT Postprocessoff	9	20
GeForce 8500 GT Postprocesson	8	17
GeForce 8400 GS Postprocess off	7	16
GeForce 8400 GS Postprocess on	6	13
GeForce 7900 GS Postprocess off	21	67
GeForce 7900 GS Postprocess on	19	47
GeForce 7600 GT Postprocess off	13	38
GeForce 7600 GT Postprocess on	12	28
Radeon HD 2600 XT Postprocess off	19	53
Radeon HD 2600 XT Postprocess on	16	35
Radeon HD 2400 XT Postprocess off	9	26
Radeon HD 2400 XT Postprocess on	8	15
Radeon X1950 Pro Postprocess off	28	78
Radeon X1950 Pro Postprocess on	24	54
Radeon X1650 XT Postprocess off	19	44
Radeon X1650 XT Postprocess on	16	32

Notes

Going from the baseline medium setting to also turning off post processing yields tangible performance gains for all the cards represented here. Both the GeForce 8600 GT and GTS receive a performance boost of greater than 10%, while the Radeon HD 2600 XT sees a whopping 24% performance gain. With post processing disabled, the Radeon X1950 Pro also sees an improvement of 22%. Even the slower cards like the Radeon HD 2400 XT and GeForce 7600 GT see substantial performance gains.