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Far Cry 1.3 Performance - Mainstream November 30, 2004 Brandon Sandman Bell |
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Summary: In this article we take a break from the Half-Life 2 performance articles to reexamine Far Cry 1.3. With its support for both shader models 2.0b and 3.0, the 1.3 patch adds full support for the latest technologies from ATI and NVIDIA. We've included the GeForce 6600 GT and GeForce 6800, as well as ATI's RADEON 9800 XT/PRO, and the X700 PRO 256MB. See how the cards compare to one another in today's article!
 Introduction | Page:: ( 1 / 22 ) |
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With Half-Life 2’s release earlier this month, Crytek’s Far Cry 1.3 patch has largely been forgotten by most, but we decided to revisit the topic with ATI’s RADEON 9800 PRO/XT and X700 PRO, arguably the most common cards from ATI that are talked about in the $200-$300 segment (since the X700 XT is still impossible to find), and the GeForce 6600 GT and GeForce 6800, which are the clearly the superior solutions of choice right now from NVIDIA at that price point.
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The argument is that with Far Cry’s unique position as the only title currently available with support for both shader model 3.0 and 2.0b we could get an indication of how NVIDIA and ATI’s latest products will perform with titles that will be coming out next year. There are a few cards that are absent, such as the GeForce 6800 LE and RADEON X800 SE, both of which are parts that have been focused on the OEM, rather than retail market.
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System Setup
Intel Pentium 4 3.0GHz
Gigabyte GA-8ANXP-D
1GB OCZ EL DDR400 Platinum Edition Rev 2
ATI RADEON X700 PRO 256MB
ATI RADEON 9800 XT
ATI RADOEN 9800 PRO 128MB
Driver version beta CAT 4.12 driver
Leadtek WinFast A400 Ultra GeForce 6800 card
NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT reference card
Driver version Forceware 67.02
250GB Maxtor Hard Drive Maxline III SATA Hard Drive w/16MB Cache
Windows XP Professional SP1
DirectX 9.0c
Benchmarks
Far Cry 1.3 patch
| Research demo | Page:: ( 2 / 22 ) |
Far Cry – Direct3D
| Research 4xAA | Page:: ( 3 / 22 ) |
Far Cry – Direct3D
| Research 2xAA/8xAF | Page:: ( 4 / 22 ) |
Far Cry – Direct3D
| Research 4xAA/8xAF | Page:: ( 5 / 22 ) |
Far Cry – Direct3D
| Regulator demo | Page:: ( 6 / 22 ) |
Far Cry – Direct3D
| Regulator 4xAA | Page:: ( 7 / 22 ) |
Far Cry – Direct3D
| Resgulator 2xAA/8xAF | Page:: ( 8 / 22 ) |
Far Cry – Direct3D
| Regulator 4xAA/8xAF | Page:: ( 9 / 22 ) |
Far Cry – Direct3D
| Training demo | Page:: ( 10 / 22 ) |
Far Cry – Direct3D
| Training demo 4xAA | Page:: ( 11 / 22 ) |
Far Cry – Direct3D
| Training demo 2xAA/8xAF | Page:: ( 12 / 22 ) |
Far Cry – Direct3D
| Training demo 4xAA/8xAF | Page:: ( 13 / 22 ) |
Far Cry – Direct3D
| Volcano | Page:: ( 14 / 22 ) |
Far Cry – Direct3D
| Volcano 4xAA | Page:: ( 15 / 22 ) |
Far Cry – Direct3D
| Volcano 2xAA/8xAF | Page:: ( 16 / 22 ) |
Far Cry – Direct3D
| Volcano 4xAAx8AF | Page:: ( 17 / 22 ) |
Far Cry – Direct3D
| HDR Research performance | Page:: ( 18 / 22 ) |
Far Cry – Direct3D
| HDR Regulator | Page:: ( 19 / 22 ) |
Far Cry – Direct3D
| HDR Training | Page:: ( 20 / 22 ) |
Far Cry – Direct3D
| HDR Volcano | Page:: ( 21 / 22 ) |
Far Cry – Direct3D
| Conclusion | Page:: ( 22 / 22 ) |
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NVIDIA’s GeForce 6600 GT put up very respectable numbers, often outperforming last year’s high-end DX9 offering, the RADEON 9800 XT. The 6600 GT’s 8 pipeline architecture and 500MHz core clock frequency give it a fill rate advantage over the RADEON 9800 XT, while the addition of shader model 3.0 support allows the card to perform well in demos such as research and regulator, where multiple lights are combined into one pass to provide better performance. Remember, ATI provides 2.0b shader support for X600 but not RADEON 9800 series cards, so the RADEON 9800 XT and RADEON 9800 PRO rely on 2.0 shaders in Far Cry 1.3.
The real disappointment for ATI has been the lack of RADEON X700 XT cards at retail. Whereas GeForce 6600 GT cards in both PCI Express and AGP flavors are hitting retail shelves, the X700 XT has yet to show up in PCI Express form, and the first AGP cards won’t hit retail in volume until next year. The X700 PRO is a good performer, but as you saw today isn’t capable of keeping up with NVIDIA’s GeForce 6600 GT. ATI really needs to get the ball rolling if they wish to remain competitive with NVIDIA’s latest mainstream offerings.
Fortunately for ATI, they have a few compelling solutions in the works to address their current shortcomings, but for the gamer at the mainstream price segment who is looking to upgrade their current Pentium 4 or Athlon 64/XP system right now, it’s pretty hard not to go with NVIDIA’s $200 GeForce 6600 GT AGP.