Far Cry 4 Video Card Performance and IQ Preview @ [H]

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FrgMstr

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Far Cry 4 Video Card Performance and IQ Preview - Far Cry 4 is here, and we take an early look at how current video cards stack up in performance, and which quality settings are graphically demanding. We will also look at some image quality comparisons and talk about the state of this game at launch. Will it measure up to Far Cry 3 in terms of graphic fidelity?
 
Wow! UBISOFT is on a roll lately (and not in a good way)... Great preview! I guess I'll wait a while before purchasing it on Steam.
 
Really enjoyed 1 and especially 3, so I was looking forward to 4 coming out of the gate very strong. I'll be speaking with my wallet by waiting for this to go on sale. :(
 
I have an AMD 290x and I am running the game at 3840x2160 2xmaa EVERYTHING ULTRA and Nvidia God Rays.. Looks sick.. No Stuttering here.. Compared to my Nvidia 780ti rig which also runs smooth but the IQ isn't as good as AMD's on the same exact settings.. Do you not notice this when you review these games??
 
ApeXiTT said:
I have an AMD 290x and I am running the game at 3840x2160 2xmaa EVERYTHING ULTRA and Nvidia God Rays.. Looks sick.. No Stuttering here.. Compared to my Nvidia 780ti rig which also runs smooth but the IQ isn't as good as AMD's on the same exact settings.. Do you not notice this when you review these games??
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Not sure I follow you... I didn't see where they tested a 780ti.....so not sure how they could notice what they don't test?
 
ApeXiTT said:
I have an AMD 290x and I am running the game at 3840x2160 2xmaa EVERYTHING ULTRA and Nvidia God Rays.. Looks sick.. No Stuttering here.. Compared to my Nvidia 780ti rig which also runs smooth but the IQ isn't as good as AMD's on the same exact settings.. Do you not notice this when you review these games??
Click to expand...

hard to believe unless you are running it with HDMI where yes, you can notice a difference, but DVI or DP should be exactly the same..... only way to see is if you post some pics to compare...
 
I don't know that I would say this game is better optimized than FC3. I could run FC3 on max settings on my old rig (i7 920 and GTX 680) just fine, whereas this I have stutter/issues with my current brand new rig. Hopefully driver updates / patches will sort out the issues.
 
Between the super dark shading bug and the image ghosting (not mentioned in this article) mentioned elsewhere on the internet that I experienced, these 2 bugs made me want to hold off on playing the game further until they are fixed. They are deal breakers and ruin the experience for me. Otherwise this game was pretty polished compared to Assassins Creed Unity. At least as an Nvidia owner I can say that. Seems that this game runs like crap on AMD hardware and that's unacceptable.

Anyone find the release notes and fixes listed in 1.4? All I've heard is the Black screen peripheral launch fix.

Edit Here is the Update Log for 1.4

Update v1.4.0 PC
• NVIDIA HairWorks fully enabled for GeForce GTX gamers.
PVP + Co-Op
• The game will no longer freeze if a player accepts a Co-Op invite while in the Uplay App after quickly selecting a storage device.
• Players will no longer experience very low FPS if they join a friend in a PvP lobbly while in the Uplay browser.
• The game will no longer remain on a black screen if they use the Fast Travel feature immediately after the Bell Tower unlock cinematic.
• Resolved certain issues that prevented a player from returning to the Story Mode from the Co-Op tab.
Progression
• Players will now be able to achieve 100% progression if they do not drive a snowmobile when the vehicle is available.
• Players will now be able to reach 100% progression after the "Day 1" Patch is applied. Trophies
• Corrected an issue where Trophies would not be rewarded for several weapons.
Main Menu
• The player will now hear ambient sound if they return tot he Main Menu from the Uplay App. Update v1.3.0 Here is the list of known issues fixed by the Day 1 Patch. Note, the patch for PC users contains a number of additional fixes - these are indicated throughout the notes below.
Stability & Performance
• Fixed some random crashes on all game modes AI
• Fixed various edge case animation issues
• Fixed various edge case detection issues
• Fixed missing VO for edge case reaction issues
Matchmaking, Connectivity & Replication
• Fixed matchmaking edge case issues
• Fixed host migration random & edge case issues
• Fixed join-in-progress edge case issues
• Fixed various replication issues between host and clients
• Fixed edge case replication issues with systems
Menus and HUD
• Fixed various edge case menus and pop-up overlap issues
• Fixed Mission objectives & updates issues
• Fixed Co-op specific pop-up updates issues
• Fixed few localization issues (cut-off text, subtitles)
• Fixed progression displaying 100% too early in progress tab
• Polished tutorial images
Mission Tweaks (Campaign, Co-Op & Side Content)
• Fixed various low repro walkthrough breaks
World & 3D
• Fixed various texture issues
• Deleted some rare floating objects Rendering & Graphics Features (PC Only)
• Fixed rendering features not available under certain configurations
• Fixed multi-monitor display issues
• Fixed multiple visual artifacts; added SLI support Inputs & Controls (PC Only)
• Fixed mouse cursor and keyboard functionality
In-Game map editor
• Fixed some graphical corruptions
• Fixed some edge case issue with maps upload
 
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Yes, the image ghosting is a PITA for sure. I forgot to mention this, apparently Brent is not seeing it. I was trying to get a good screen shot early this morning, but could not, and then I totally flaked on it when editing this morning.
 
Great article! Grammar fixed, thanks. - Kyle

Interestingly, I found your examples of SMAA on page 6 preferable with SMAA off and HBAO makes the rocks look better but the foreground foliage worse.

Thank you for reporting the problems with SLI - I hope you will follow up this article at 4K when SLI works properly.
 
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More money spent on advertising than the actual product... Shame on you Ubisoft :p


Poster's opinion only.
 
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Well I'm glad I decided to get Dragon Age: Inquisition before I purchased Far Cry 4.

Will wait till I read the issues are fixed first, which probably means I will wait for a good sale.
 
i don't know why no one is talking about the horrible 2-zone mouse sensitivity. if it stays like that, and doesn't get patched out, there's no way i'm playing this. it ruined alien isolation for me and it will ruin this game for me as well.
 
Odellus said:
i don't know why no one is talking about the horrible 2-zone mouse sensitivity. if it stays like that, and doesn't get patched out, there's no way i'm playing this. it ruined alien isolation for me and it will ruin this game for me as well.
Click to expand...

Wait I think I noticed that weirdness.

Horizontally it is different than vertically. I had to play with mouth smoothness and turn acceleration on and tweak that acceleration quite a bit before I found something that was Semi (Not Fully) comfortable.

I haven't gotten to the point of a full blown fire fight yet. I only got the first tower, Beehived the first guy and shot the other in the face with a Arrow when he was going down the zipline. :D
 
Brent_Justice said:
Might be an SLI issue, I didn't see it during single-GPU.

http://forums.ubi.com/showthread.php/954827-SLI-Ghosting-after-Nvidia-update?p=10357834
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Yeah possibly either SLI or Portrait NV surround. If I'm not mistaken Kyle and I run a extremely similar setup.

Edit: New rumor on the Ubisoft forum page is that patch 1.4 may need additional testing and may slip until next week see here http://far-cry.ubi.com/en-US/news/live-updates-detail.aspx?c=tcm:152-185596-16&ct=tcm:148-76770-32
 
Lord_Exodia said:
Wait I think I noticed that weirdness.

Horizontally it is different than vertically. I had to play with mouth smoothness and turn acceleration on and tweak that acceleration quite a bit before I found something that was Semi (Not Fully) comfortable.

I haven't gotten to the point of a full blown fire fight yet. I only got the first tower, Beehived the first guy and shot the other in the face with a Arrow when he was going down the zipline. :D
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no, there are two zones of sensitivity, low and normal. unless you move your mouse a certain speed, it will move way slower than it should, and it makes aiming impossible. want to be precise with your shot? better be mindful of how fast you move your mouse or your sensitivity will double. it's fucked. it's like trying to aim with an xbox controller.
 
Odellus said:
no, there are two zones of sensitivity, low and normal. unless you move your mouse a certain speed, it will move way slower than it should, and it makes aiming impossible. want to be precise with your shot? better be mindful of how fast you move your mouse or your sensitivity will double. it's fucked. it's like trying to aim with an xbox controller.
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I see, I'll experiment more with it and see if I come up with a fix. Currently I'm in the middle of a mouse RMA with Razer and I'm using a crappy logitech reference type of mouse which isn't the best to test with.

This sounds like the type of thing that a config file edit will be able to disable or fix.
 
I got FC4 for free with my video card. I am happy I did... I'd be disappointed if I spent $60 on it. I'd wait for under $30 IMO.

FC4 is a set up from FC3 for graphics and gameplay I think, but why does the Valley benchmark look 100x's better and run faster than a AAA game? Story in FC3 was way better.

Ooo hairworks doesn't work yet. I was wondering why the fur looked horrid. I also expected my 750ti to be loaded.
 
You mentioned in the article that the hit for enabling Godrays is substantially higher on the 290X than the GTX 980. I'd be curious to see that feature tested in an on/off comparison on a Tonga GPU, like the 285. Understandably the 285 is a much slower product, but the GCN architecture in that GPU was updated for improved tessellation performance specifically and Tonga handles tessellation better than Hawaii. Just a curiosity.
 
General feedback on your article:
I don't mind the split slide thing to illustrate the difference, but some kind of indication of which picture indicates what is necessary, otherwise I'm unsure of which is before and which is after.

Also, larger pictures wouldn't go amiss.
 
Nice review, loving the preview sliders on the various image quality sceenshots!
 
toddw said:
Not sure I follow you... I didn't see where they tested a 780ti.....so not sure how they could notice what they don't test?
Click to expand...

Sorry.. I have a rig with a 290x and a rig with a gtx 780ti so I tested MYSELF

I have almost 2 decades of experience here so I know how to compare graphics on a very technical level.

The 780ti on my finds doesn't compare graphically on Far cry 4 to Amd's
Maybe because all of AMd's optimizations have to happen on a driver level because of gameworks.. my guess..


This game is stunning on my AMD rig not so much on my 780ti rig.
I need to post some pics..lol
 
Rizen said:
You mentioned in the article that the hit for enabling Godrays is substantially higher on the 290X than the GTX 980. I'd be curious to see that feature tested in an on/off comparison on a Tonga GPU, like the 285. Understandably the 285 is a much slower product, but the GCN architecture in that GPU was updated for improved tessellation performance specifically and Tonga handles tessellation better than Hawaii. Just a curiosity.
Click to expand...

I have the same curiosity. Consider it done for the full evaluation.
 
Araxie said:
hard to believe unless you are running it with HDMI where yes, you can notice a difference, but DVI or DP should be exactly the same..... only way to see is if you post some pics to compare...
Click to expand...


That's not true.. The display connector has nothing to do with how graphics are being rendered on a driver level and you can't capture hdmi, dvi and dp differnces on a screenshot.

But I can capture driver level optimizations I will post some pics for sure.
 
Rizen said:
You mentioned in the article that the hit for enabling Godrays is substantially higher on the 290X than the GTX 980. I'd be curious to see that feature tested in an on/off comparison on a Tonga GPU, like the 285. Understandably the 285 is a much slower product, but the GCN architecture in that GPU was updated for improved tessellation performance specifically and Tonga handles tessellation better than Hawaii. Just a curiosity.
Click to expand...

Brent_Justice said:
I have the same curiosity. Consider it done for the full evaluation.
Click to expand...

Other sites are saying that the performance hit for the 780's is also high when they are enabled. It seem that the godrays are optimized for the 970/980.

Maybe put some form of a 780 in the final review.
 
Lord_Exodia said:
Wait I think I noticed that weirdness.

Horizontally it is different than vertically. I had to play with mouth smoothness and turn acceleration on and tweak that acceleration quite a bit before I found something that was Semi (Not Fully) comfortable.

I haven't gotten to the point of a full blown fire fight yet. I only got the first tower, Beehived the first guy and shot the other in the face with a Arrow when he was going down the zipline. :D
Click to expand...

Have you done the gamerprofile.XML modifications for the mouse? Turning the mouse accel off in the menu only toggles one of the four options. Once I edited mine, it became way more playable.
 
Deimos said:
General feedback on your article:
I don't mind the split slide thing to illustrate the difference, but some kind of indication of which picture indicates what is necessary, otherwise I'm unsure of which is before and which is after.

Also, larger pictures wouldn't go amiss.
Click to expand...

That is currently in text below the picture comparison. We are in middle of changing that though so it will be 100% apparent in the future.
 
GoodBoy said:
Nice review, loving the preview sliders on the various image quality sceenshots!
Click to expand...

Geforcepat said:
Really love the new image viewer/slider thingy.please keep this [H]:)
Click to expand...


Thanks, those will get better as we move forward. A couple of new features I am thinking about enabling there as well.

If you guys have any suggestions, please let me know about those.
 
Spidey329 said:
Have you done the gamerprofile.XML modifications for the mouse? Turning the mouse accel off in the menu only toggles one of the four options. Once I edited mine, it became way more playable.
Click to expand...

Please tell me more. Linkage to specifics maybe that worked for you?
 
Quartz-1 said:
Interestingly, I found your examples of SMAA on page 6 preferable with SMAA off and HBAO makes the rocks look better but the foreground foliage worse.
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This is one of the reasons we try to give you guys as much data as we possibly can. We can always agree to disagree. We have never asked that you agree with our analysis, especially on something as highly subjective as image quality. And if we did not respect your opinions on all of this, we certainly would not waste our time reading all these threads. :) Quite frankly, user feedback in these forums over the years has had a LOT to do with shaping how the GPU editors produce the content.
 
Quartz-1 said:
Interestingly, I found your examples of SMAA on page 6 preferable with SMAA off and HBAO makes the rocks look better but the foreground foliage worse.
Click to expand...

A couple of things I prefer about SMAA in my personal opinion. It anti-aliases trees, grass, all the vegetation in the game. Aliased grass and tress really annoys me. It can slightly reduce some shader based aliasing in certain circumstances. It reduces aliasing on distant objects, which reduces the sparkling effect of aliasing as I look into the distance in games. In real-life, things don't sparkle cause they aren't aliased. SMAA helps me to see distant objects as I move through the game. It helps while aiming weapons and hitting the targets I want cause I can see objects more clearly.

AO is more subjective, but if you look at what HBAO+ is doing with all the textures taken away, it is much more precise than the default - http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/gu...far-cry-4-nvidia-hbao-plus-ambient-occulusion
 
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Game feels like is was built and shipped for consoles in mind as the priority... PC as the complicated step child...
and of coarse the game was shipped unfinished which is a crummy trend in the modern big game industry.
 
I know this i a enthusiast forum but still. my GPU is only one year old and if a GPU wasnt released yesterday. it never gets included on benchmarks on games?

When doing gaming reviews could u include last gens models too?
 
Geforcepat said:
Really love the new image viewer/slider thingy.please keep this [H]:)
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I love them too.

Brent_Justice said:
A couple of things I prefer about SMAA in my personal opinion. It anti-aliases trees, grass, all the vegetation in the game. Aliased grass and tress really annoys me.
Click to expand...

One of the difficulties here is that AA is better experienced over a series of frames than a single image. I wonder if the slider thingy above can be used with an animated PNG?
 
As always, kudos to [H], this preview is way better than most full reviews out there. Heck some of them didn't even realize about the extra settings.

One reviewer said he didn't even had a chance to actually play the game!!!! Too busy doing benchmarks...
 
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