FarCry 2 Gameplay Performance @ [H]

Meocene said:
My rig:
8800GTX @ 612/945
Q6600 @ 2.8
24" dell monitor
Everything set to ultra high but with no AA (because I'll be damned I just don't notice any more) = runs like a dream at 1920*1200 and looks stunning.

P.S: I'd love to know exactly what it was that nVidia did to their drivers to make AA *almost* redundant?
When Bioshock first came out it suffered the worst aliasing I think I've ever seen in a video game.
Then nVidia worked some magic and when I went through Bioshock for a second time I though that maybe the 1.1 patch enabled some kind of default AA in the Unreal 3 engine - almost all aliasing was gone, and this is true of just about every other game I've played recently.
Is this a DX10 thing or has nVidia done something rather cool?
Click to expand...

Uhhhh.... are you really sure that AA was disabled in both the game menu and Nvidia's control panel? For me, AA is absolutely necessary unless I must play that performance-hungry game at a 1920x1200 native resolution of my 24" LCD without having to wait for a next-gen GPU so that I can play it with 4x or 8x AA. That's why I still havent played Crysis yet, until there's the hardware for it.

Anyways, both you Brent and Kyle hit a homerun with this FarCry 2 performance review! It might not be a grand slam (because you guys left out the legendary 8800GTX and HD 3870 cards) but still a home run regardless.
 
Meocene said:
My rig:
8800GTX @ 612/945
Q6600 @ 2.8
24" dell monitor
Everything set to ultra high but with no AA (because I'll be damned I just don't notice any more) = runs like a dream at 1920*1200 and looks stunning.

P.S: I'd love to know exactly what it was that nVidia did to their drivers to make AA *almost* redundant?
When Bioshock first came out it suffered the worst aliasing I think I've ever seen in a video game.
Then nVidia worked some magic and when I went through Bioshock for a second time I though that maybe the 1.1 patch enabled some kind of default AA in the Unreal 3 engine - almost all aliasing was gone, and this is true of just about every other game I've played recently.
Is this a DX10 thing or has nVidia done something rather cool?
Click to expand...
Far Cry 2 NEEDS AA because all the grass looks a total shimmering mess without it. BTW Bioshock is just as jaggy at it always was when I played through it a few weeks ago before getting this ATI card.
 
I hate to say it, but my Far Cry 2 performance is MUCH worse with Hotfix#2. Both inside and outside. I tested this very carefully, uninstalling and reinstalling 8.10 (pre-hotfix), then hotfix#1, and then hotfix#2, playing around a bit (forget benchmarks), and there is no doubt that hotfix#1 has FAR better performance.

I'm back to hotfix#1.
 
cannondale06 said:
Far Cry 2 NEEDS AA because all the grass looks a total shimmering mess without it. BTW Bioshock is just as jaggy at it always was when I played through it a few weeks ago before getting this ATI card.
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I am running at 2XAA at 2560 and it looks great. Just enough AA to take the edge off. ;)
 
[H]ard and Guru3d both seem to show FC2 benefits from cards with greater than 512Mb ram. Of course it goes without saying that becomes more meaningful once you hit 1920x.

For the record some people are crying about hitching or stutter with nVidia products as well-

http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/1821007696/m/9411088696
http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/1821007696/m/5701018996
http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/1821007696/m/1961080996
http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/1821007696/m/7021077796

You may add black screens, blue screens, freezes and crashing to that list too.

Just another game designed and optimized for the console.
 
cannondale06 said:
Far Cry 2 NEEDS AA because all the grass looks a total shimmering mess without it. BTW Bioshock is just as jaggy at it always was when I played through it a few weeks ago before getting this ATI card.
Click to expand...

Gotta say I completely disagree with you both points.
Bioshock is clearly considerable less jaggy, and as the dude above said 2xAA in FC2 just takes the edge of things. There was a time when I couldn't play without AA but now it just doesn't stand out so much. It's as if the aliasing lines have shrunk.
I'm not blind bud, I am seeing the things I'm describing.

Long live the 8800GTX!!! It shall spend it winters years in a rest home called PhysX.
 
Hey guys, did you test this in DX9 much? I'm seeing some odd behavior.

I have an E8400, HD4850 512MB, and 4GB of RAM in XP 32-bit. Catalyst 8.10 plus latest hotfix.

I am running 1600x1200, no AA, at 35-40 fps but the framerates drop dramatically into the low 20s when I enable ultra high shadows or shading. (Ultra high everything else has very little hit to rates.) I see your HD4850 was running ultra high everything at 1920x1200 at a minimum of 32 fps!

Could it be the CPU? My guess is that Ultra High has some DX10 effects that they attempted to reproduce in DX9 but which are much less efficient in that mode.
 
Going even further back from the cards reviewed, FarCry 2 runs extremely well on older cards like the 8800GT and 9800GT with all settings cranked at 1440 resolution. Its insane how much performance you can get these days from a rig that is $500 for all the hardware.
 
Yeah, in stark contrast of what was available a year+ ago at the same price point (a gimped 8800 GTS 320MB or an even weaker 8600 basically)... Competition's a very good thing, let's just hope they can keep it up.
 
Meocene said:
Gotta say I completely disagree with you both points.
Bioshock is clearly considerable less jaggy, and as the dude above said 2xAA in FC2 just takes the edge of things. There was a time when I couldn't play without AA but now it just doesn't stand out so much. It's as if the aliasing lines have shrunk.
I'm not blind bud, I am seeing the things I'm describing.

Long live the 8800GTX!!! It shall spend it winters years in a rest home called PhysX.
Click to expand...
you can disagree all you want but Bioshock hasnt changed one bit and if you think its less jaggy than it was last year then that is all your mind.

2x AA in Far Cry 2 is fine but zero AA is not.
 
dumb questions for the reviewers, but none you actually said how you liked the game?

Also you keep mentioning that the GTX280 is cheaper then the 4870X2 and right now by my info you can get a BFG GTX280 for 350AR, a 4870X2 for 450 AR (without using cashback). If I am recommending a card for a 30 inch monitor would the extra 100 bucks be justified?

also did you guys happen to look at using CFAA?
 
Can you run 2x AA on the 4850 at 1680x1050 and retain acceptable performance? I see 2x AA at 1920x isn't very workable but it's only mentioned in passing when discussing 1680x, just curious...
 
Hello,

This discussion on old video cards reminded me of question I have been meaning to ask on your reviews for some time now. CPU. This review covers a range in Video card prices from $500 to $150 but all on a $1000 + overclocking processor. While do understand you want to remove CPU as a bottle neck it would be nice to see how the game play is with a different CPU or two. I love or "real world" setting and in many cases have used them a when configuring my own settings. The addition of a small CPU section (one graph) would provide me with that information.

Keep up the great work !
 
They've done articles in the past that showed anything above a C2D @ 3.0GHz wouldn't bottleneck you across most games... Though some recent games have been taking better advantage of the extra cores, I don't know of many that really push all four cores though (Supreme Commander?), I thought I saw the topic mentioned in passing on this evaluation or one of the recent ones, not sure if they went into detail, I must've missed it. Games are mostly GPU bound though, with some exceptions.
 
zkosmos said:
Hello,

This discussion on old video cards reminded me of question I have been meaning to ask on your reviews for some time now. CPU. This review covers a range in Video card prices from $500 to $150 but all on a $1000 + overclocking processor. While do understand you want to remove CPU as a bottle neck it would be nice to see how the game play is with a different CPU or two. I love or "real world" setting and in many cases have used them a when configuring my own settings. The addition of a small CPU section (one graph) would provide me with that information.

Keep up the great work !
Click to expand...
yes the cpu makes a big difference in FC 2. its sort of a wake up call for those that have paired a good card like the 4850, 4870 or better with a slow cpu like the 5000 X2 or worse. http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,663817/Reviews/Far_Cry_2_GPU_and_CPU_benchmarks/?page=2
 
Thanks Impulse that helps,

They did mention CPU threading being important in "The Bottom Line" of the article and were going to cover that in a separate article at the Nehalem launch. So for FarCry 2 waiting should flush out the details of CPU requirements.
 
This articles requires one more thing for perfection:

radeon 4850 with 1 gig of memory.
 
it's nice to see my sli rig almost keeping up with what the 260 can offer... the damn things are 300+ after rebate up here... :(
 
I loved the article, another great read in a long line.

But.........I honestly can't believe the result you have on the 4870 X2.
I can't get the 8.10 hotfix Revision2 to work worth a crap, and I tried everything I know.
My Vista Home Premium x64 is freshly installed, and I use an X48 chipset.

My CrossfireX 4870 X2 system only pulls 50 frames max in game with no AA at 1920 x 1200.

Either you guys have some mojo I don't or CrossfireX is a bust........I should get at least 25% better frames than you guys, not less with two cards.

Unless you have something set in the CCC I don't or do.
I have edge-detect enabled and "use application AA" and I have adaptive AA also enabled.
 
Yeah, I am running around town at 80+ FPS the whole time, and it drops down to around 60 in some places, using same resolution but with 4xAA.
 
Since the 4850 is usually compared to the 9800GTX+, why isn't it also tested? I can't believe the 4870s and up are the standard used today, so why not give the results most mid-range gamers will be getting?
 
SubtleOne said:
Since the 4850 is usually compared to the 9800GTX+, why isn't it also tested? I can't believe the 4870s and up are the standard used today, so why not give the results most mid-range gamers will be getting?
Click to expand...
how the heck are you running that system of yours on a Thermaltake 430 watt psu? that power supply only has one 12V rail with just 18amps. theres no way it can be reliably powering a system with an overclocked E8400 and 4870. :confused:
 
Hmm... I want to hold on to my 8800gt a little longer. My 8800gt runs cod4 well @1920x1200 w/2xaa, so maybe it can handle fc2 with no aa.
 
Im playing at 1920X1200 16X AF, and 2x AA (edge detect), and I RARELY get below 30fps.

This is with everything maxed out in DX10 mode, and Vsync on....man im surprised how well it runs on my 6400+ BE, but that proc is a champ I tell yea.

Next up on the list fallout 3
 
cannondale06 said:
how the heck are you running that system of yours on a Thermaltake 430 watt psu? that power supply only has one 12V rail with just 18amps. theres no way it can be reliably powering a system with an overclocked E8400 and 4870. :confused:
Click to expand...

Yet it does.

Note that the 3.6GHz OC requires no real extra power, as voltage is same as vanilla, and temps are only 1-2 degrees more. I've tested it at 4.05GHz (1.38v), and had no issues with benchmarks, but the temps went up almost 15 degrees, and I didn't really see the point except for benchmarking.

As to the 4870, much the same I think. I cannot measure the power consumption, but if the temperatures are any indication, it is about 3 degrees higher than default.

I've played Far Cry 2 and Oblivion, games that use both CPU and GPU abundantly, and had no issues.

If you have some test or tool measuring, I'd be glad to oblige. But AFAIK, the system is rock solid, even under duress.
 
This is the link to a FOV hack for Far Cry 2. Apparently, as one of the Ubisoft guys said over at the Ubisoft forums, the narrow FOV was designed for the console version as many gamers play at over 8-10 feet away from the screen. Like with Bioshock, the narrow FOV made it more immersive for them. However, it is far too narrow for PC users sitting 2-3 feet away from their widescreen monitors, and in addition the widescreen FOV is simply cropped from the 4:3 or an even taller 5:4 version. Bioshock released a patch fixing this problem, but we PC gamers are enraged by Ubisoft giving more consideration to the console than the PC port. Other examples are leaving out the prone function and the crouch toggle option (because there arent enough buttons on the Xbox360 controller). And the PC version has to be identical to the console version, why???

EDIT: And the lean left/right functions are also left out... Far Cry 1 had much more of an impact whn it was released, and I do not think FC2 will have a long-lasting popularity like FC1 did. The colors are too brownish in DX10 with very high or ultra high shaders anyway.. UGH like everything being covered in doo-doo feces.

Anyways, here's more on this from the link http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=143018#143018 and you can download the FOV hack from there.
 
SubtleOne said:
Yet it does.

Note that the 3.6GHz OC requires no real extra power, as voltage is same as vanilla, and temps are only 1-2 degrees more. I've tested it at 4.05GHz (1.38v), and had no issues with benchmarks, but the temps went up almost 15 degrees, and I didn't really see the point except for benchmarking.

As to the 4870, much the same I think. I cannot measure the power consumption, but if the temperatures are any indication, it is about 3 degrees higher than default.

I've played Far Cry 2 and Oblivion, games that use both CPU and GPU abundantly, and had no issues.

If you have some test or tool measuring, I'd be glad to oblige. But AFAIK, the system is rock solid, even under duress.
Click to expand...
still doesnt sound very safe at all. 430watts doesnt mean anything if you only have 18 amps available on the 12v. I guarantee you that 18amps is not sufficient with your 4870 and oc cpu setup. anybody with any power supply knowledge whatsoever will also tell you the same. ;)
 
Bo_Fox said:
This is the link to a FOV hack for Far Cry 2. Apparently, as one of the Ubisoft guys said over at the Ubisoft forums, the narrow FOV was designed for the console version as many gamers play at over 8-10 feet away from the screen. Like with Bioshock, the narrow FOV made it more immersive for them. However, it is far too narrow for PC users sitting 2-3 feet away from their widescreen monitors, and in addition the widescreen FOV is simply cropped from the 4:3 or an even taller 5:4 version. Bioshock released a patch fixing this problem, but we PC gamers are enraged by Ubisoft giving more consideration to the console than the PC port. Other examples are leaving out the prone function and the crouch toggle option (because there arent enough buttons on the Xbox360 controller). And the PC version has to be identical to the console version, why???

Anyways, here's more on this from the link http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=143018#143018 and you can download the FOV hack from there.
Click to expand...

Thank you.
That RaserS guy did a fix for Bioshock that worked very well.
In fact the developers just published it or incorporated it into their patch instaed of doing it themselves.
 
cannondale06 said:
still doesnt sound very safe at all. 430watts doesnt mean anything if you only have 18 amps available on the 12v. I guarantee you that 18amps is not sufficient with your 4870 and oc cpu setup. anybody with any power supply knowledge whatsoever will also tell you the same. ;)
Click to expand...

<shrug> I am guessing we have different definitions of 'sufficient'. My definition is that it provides enough power to run the rig stable at full load (and I've run stability tests), and has more power than it actually reaches. AFAIK, the rig does not pull 430W ever, so buying much larger PSUs would actually be an exercise in inefficiency.
 
Great article! Very informative.
Anyone wondering what 8800GTS 640mb will land them, here are my results:
Specs: AMD 4400+ X2, 2GB Ram, XP64, 8800GTS 640mb(178.24 - the new Betas DO NOT WORK FOR ME )
1280*1024 Everything Set to Ultra High 2AA DX9
18-25 FPS - unplayable
1280*1024 Everything Set to Ultra High No AA DX9
20-28 FPS - unplayable
1280*1024 Everything Set to Very High No AA DX9
30-40 FPS - Playable, though not amazing.

As for the game so far - I love it!!! It feels fun and very immersing the way everything is animated and the HUD just disappears when you don't need it (90% of the time).
I'm loving this game!
 
SubtleOne said:
<shrug> I am guessing we have different definitions of 'sufficient'. My definition is that it provides enough power to run the rig stable at full load (and I've run stability tests), and has more power than it actually reaches. AFAIK, the rig does not pull 430W ever, so buying much larger PSUs would actually be an exercise in inefficiency.
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see you arent even listening. I already said 430watts has nothing to do with it. its your 12V rail thats the problem. you only have 18 amps on the 12V and that IS NOT ENOUGH to reliably power your system with an overclocked cpu and 4870. heck even most 300watt units have more 12V amps then that.

you obviously know nothing about power supplies and I am only trying to help. that power supply is a joke for a 430watt unit and only uninformed people buy those because 430 watts sounds good. its just a matter of time before it fails trying to power that much stuff with only 18amps and if you doubt me then ask over in the psu sub forum. ;)
 
cannondale06 said:
see you arent even listening. I already said 430watts has nothing to do with it. its your 12V rail thats the problem. you only have 18 amps on the 12V and that IS NOT ENOUGH to reliably power your system with an overclocked cpu and 4870. heck even most 300watt units have more 12V amps then that.

you obviously know nothing about power supplies and I am only trying to help. that power supply is a joke for a 430watt unit and only uninformed people buy those because 430 watts sounds good. its just a matter of time before it fails trying to power that much stuff with only 18amps and if you doubt me then ask over in the psu sub forum. ;)
Click to expand...

Two things:

1) You are 100% correct about the 12V rails, and I already spoke to my supplier, who will be exchanging this one for a more powerful one (29A total on 12V rails). I haven't had any stability issues of any kind, but the recommended amperage is 24 for my rig, so the point is taken.

2) You really have terrible people skills, and need to work on your tact. If you want to actually help someone, then condescension, winks, and terms like "you obviously know nothing" or "is a joke", are a great way to make sure no one follows your advice, no matter how good it may be. The next time you offer advice, ask yourself what your goal is: to try and show superior knowledge (massage your own ego), or help the person to make a better decision. Just my 2 cents. Peace.
 
SubtleOne said:
Two things:

1) You are 100% correct about the 12V rails, and I already spoke to my supplier, who will be exchanging this one for a more powerful one (29A total on 12V rails). I haven't had any stability issues of any kind, but the recommended amperage is 24 for my rig, so the point is taken.

2) You really have terrible people skills, and need to work on your tact. If you want to actually help someone, then condescension, winks, and terms like "you obviously know nothing" or "is a joke", are a great way to make sure no one follows your advice, no matter how good it may be. The next time you offer advice, ask yourself what your goal is: to try and show superior knowledge (massage your own ego), or help the person to make a better decision. Just my 2 cents. Peace.
Click to expand...
I promise you I wasnt being condescending and Im sorry if you took it that way. I said you obviously know nothing about power supplies since I had already told you that 430watts was not the issue but you still point to that as being enough for your system. That power supply is a joke for a 430watt unit for the reasons I already stated. I dont know how that comment could possibly offend you since I was just hammering home the fact that most other units with the same wattage offer respectable 12V amps. The wink was to let you know that I was being helpful by giving you advice and that was it. :)
 
testing an HD 4870 in my rig, only seeing 20-30 fps on Ultra high with no AA, get around 50-60 fps on very high with 2X AA , using the latest hotfix driver. Seems using quad core CPu's might be making a difference as another rig with an e2220 was getting laughable framerates with a 4870 until it was overclocked to over 3.3ghz. Sigh :(
 
Will we be seeing any SLI results in another article? Would be interesting to see how well this game scales on NVIDIA's hardware. Seems to scale well with crossfire (4870X2)
 
Bo_Fox said:
Other examples are leaving out the prone function and the crouch toggle option (because there arent enough buttons on the Xbox360 controller). And the PC version has to be identical to the console version, why???

EDIT: And the lean left/right functions are also left out...
Click to expand...

I don't think it has anything to do with how many buttons the 360 controller has. The 360 controller has a ton of buttons, remember the d-pad counts as 8 buttons and both analog sticks can be pressed.

CoD4 had both these features and was multi-platform also.
 
superbooga said:
I don't think it has anything to do with how many buttons the 360 controller has. The 360 controller has a ton of buttons, remember the d-pad counts as 8 buttons and both analog sticks can be pressed.

CoD4 had both these features and was multi-platform also.
Click to expand...

Perhaps you're right, but COD4 did not require buttons for driving vehicles, etc.. it had a simpler interface in fact. FC2 does have other functions to make up for it though. (The D-pad does not really count as 8 buttons, if you want to use 8 different functions on a d-pad, you're being silly :p ) It's just that many people are complaining that there's no prone function that made FC1 so good. Oh well..
 
Do you guys have any plans to revisit this now that DX10.1 support has been added?
 
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