S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky - Gameplay Perf and IQ @ [H]

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S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky - Gameplay Perf and IQ - S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky has arrived to give us our apocalyptic fix, and just maybe grind our video cards into dust in the process. We'll find out how AMD’s and NVIDIA's latest high-end GPUs handle this graphically demanding new game!

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If you have been stalling your upgrade for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky, your time is now. If you are looking in the Enthusiast-class high end market, your “fastest” bet is definitely the ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2. It is brutally fast right now, and that should only improve over time with game and driver updates. In fact, we expect to see a good deal of the erratic framerates exhibited by AMD’s 4870 GPUs to be fixed with its next driver release, but for now that is wishful thinking. However, the slower GTX 280 provided a great gameplay experience at 2560 resolution without the downspikes in framerate that annoyed us while playing the game with the 4870 X2. A good 4870 X2 will still cost you big bucks and when it comes to Clear Sky the GTX 280 is simply a better value.
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Can't wait to pick this game up. Right now playing the original STALKER and loving it. Got my 4870 just in time.
 
Any plans to do a 260 sli review? With the way it scaled so well between the 4870 and the X2, you gotta wonder if its the same story with the 260 (maybe even the 280?) ;)
 
Hearing the previews detail how demanding this game was going to be I was hoping for some crossfire/sli action from [H]. I am looking at a vid card purchase in the next month and it may have helped that decision a little more...

I'm at a loss deciding to toss 300 towards dual 4850's in CF or trading something else in my build for a larger graphics budget...
 
This article was terribly time consuming and difficult as well. We wanted to try our best to get this out in a timely manner and adding card configurations increases the amount of work that has to be done greatly.

You can see the most complete article in the world on CF and SLI scaling here at HardOCP.

There is no new information to be gleaned here in terms of multi-GPU scaling IMO.

I do however feel that today's STALKER article is another showcase of just how important real world gameplay evaluation is when it comes to video card "reviews."
 
Anandtech recently tested a 1024 Memory 4870, $299 @ newegg, the same price as a 216 core 260 ... I wonder if this would give the 4870 the added punch at higher resolutions to push past the 900 mb memory 260 as the best 'budget' performance card for this game, or is the nivida chip simply more efficient at higher resolutions? ... also I'd love to have seen this test on a 3Gz+ dual core intel machine but based on the cpu utilization graph it wouldn't make much of a difference anyhow ...
 
My computer runs this game beautifully at 19 X 12 full DX10 on Vista 64 bit.

The graphics truely are fabulous.

Unfortunately it still suffers from bugs and crashes, somehow after playing Shadow of Chernobyl it just seems natural though.

There is a new patch just released yesterday taking the game to 1.5.05, I believe.
Save games will not be interrupted according to release notes.
 
TeskoX said:
Anandtech recently tested a 1024 Memory 4870, $299 @ newegg, the same price as a 216 core 260 ... I wonder if this would give the 4870 the added punch at higher resolutions to push past the 900 mb memory 260 as the best 'budget' performance card for this game, or is the nivida chip simply more efficient at higher resolutions? ...
Click to expand...

We have an upcoming evaluation where this will be tested.
 
Wikkid :) thanks for the quick response ... sadly I don't have the money for either of them ... but interested none the less ... hopefully at 8800gts 512 ssc or 4850 can do a decent job ... don't need to run @ more then 1280 x 800 anyhow ...
 
I have an 8800GTX and it can run Clear Sky at 1280x800 with DX10 lighting and everything else at medium but go any higher than that and it chokes big time. No AA or AF also.
 
Nice to see you went the extra mile and tested different settings to see which brought the best "IQ/perf ratio".

So essentially we get a great article which doubles as a tweak guide.

Good work.
 
TeskoX said:
Anandtech recently tested a 1024 Memory 4870, $299 @ newegg, the same price as a 216 core 260 ... I wonder if this would give the 4870 the added punch at higher resolutions to push past the 900 mb memory 260 as the best 'budget' performance card for this game, or is the nivida chip simply more efficient at higher resolutions? ...
Click to expand...

+1

I too am curious about the results a 1GB 4870 would have achieved...
 
I'm currently running the game @ 1920x1200 (DX10) with everything turned on with the exceptions of Sun Rays & Sun Quality both at low, SSAO on high & no AA.

After reading the article, I'll be changing Sun Quality to High & SSAO to low to get better visuals & good FPS.

Thanks, Kyle, Mark, Brent, & Crew for the guide!
 
magoo said:
My computer runs this game beautifully at 19 X 12 full DX10 on Vista 64 bit.

The graphics truely are fabulous.

Unfortunately it still suffers from bugs and crashes, somehow after playing Shadow of Chernobyl it just seems natural though.

There is a new patch just released yesterday taking the game to 1.5.05, I believe.
Save games will not be interrupted according to release notes.
Click to expand...

Good news, looks like we have a very similar setup. What settings are you using (volm smoke, sun rays)? Do you notice any of the choppiness mentioned with the single 4870 X2 in the [H] evaluation?

I'm thinking about picking up this game as I liked the original and for the mere fact that it's one of the only games out there that will stress my cards...
 
Shame the 8800 cards have been completely overlooked, I guess they are no longer in fashion!:rolleyes:
 
spicey said:
Shame the 8800 cards have been completely overlooked, I guess they are no longer in fashion!:rolleyes:
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Maybe what should do in the future is always throw in some baseline kind of card into the review to show what the high end can do and what to expect from the lower end. Then people with in between cards and kind of come to some sort of conclusion without hardocp needing to benchmark for 20 different cards.

And by baseline I mean something like an 8800GT or 9600GSO. Something that at least produces enough push to be a worth while card for the entry level gamer.
 
Of all the reviews I read here at [H], these ones are probably my favorite. Between you guys and Tweakguides, I can figure out pretty much exactly how a system will run a certain game (well, new system anyways), but having the info about which settings does what and the performance hit that comes with it is excellent, and I don't have to waste hours figuring out what I should and shouldn't enable.

Wonderful job, thanks for it.
 
As a 38 y/o white collar middle management type who doesn't play a lot of FPS's, I've had this game for 10 days and am totally addicted. It's flippin' amazing in presentation. I'm not positive but from what I read I've probably played about 85% thru.
No doubt patches are needed (I'm not ig'nant), but I've been playing 1.5.04 fine with no real problems, don't let the angry forum kiddies elsewhere turn you away from this atmosphere.

But on to the topic my 260 (original) with XP has been doing well at 1920x1080 with most everything on high.

The best & most thorough review always seem to be at [H]. Thanks!
 
Citizen86 said:
Of all the reviews I read here at [H], these ones are probably my favorite. Between you guys and Tweakguides, I can figure out pretty much exactly how a system will run a certain game (well, new system anyways), but having the info about which settings does what and the performance hit that comes with it is excellent, and I don't have to waste hours figuring out what I should and shouldn't enable.

Wonderful job, thanks for it.
Click to expand...

Without a doubt, they are my favorite to do. They are a lot more interesting and challenging than doing another Generic NVIDIA/ATI OC OMGWFTBBQ (FTW) card #78, and it's always more fun to dive into unknown territory.
 
Great review.

Makes me want to go out and buy STALKER and STALKER:CS.

I am glad to hear that the GTX 280 can play this well.

But 2560x1200 with no AA :(
 
Is it just norway that got this price thing.

4870 could be bought for 1500 NOK's and selling for 1700-1800 NOK very often, while a GTX260 have only been down @ 1900 NOK and selling mostly @ 2000 mostly, just about 2 weeks ago did the GTX260 drop down to 1900(325 usd).

which is opposite of what it is in USA. 4870 is cheaper, and never been a GTX260 which is cheaper, its more noisy, and doesnt have dx10.1 and is mostly slower.
they dropped to 2000 in one cut, and stopped.


We dont have rebate system AT ALL!.
And we are just 5 million people, not that big market, but we got big wallets, and like to buy stuff, not a big but a good one =)

Offer of the week is normal with 10-15 % and normal for the 4870 is 11%.
4870 price have dropped modest 3-6% since launch.

JUST to be an ass... even though i make 30 bucks n hour in norway., i bought a pair of overclocked 4870's from msi @ 199 USD !!!! wrong price :D it was sold out before they had time to fix price, it was LESS than the 4850.
 
AtkinS said:
4870 is cheaper, and never been a GTX260 which is cheaper, its more noisy, and doesnt have dx10.1 and is mostly slower.
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From the [H]ard reviews, the 260 is generally the same or faster. Also, games aren't supporting DX10.1 so what does it matter if the hardware does?

As far as the pricing in non-US markets, it's generally much more expensive than the US markets. I'm surprised by the difference between the 260 and the 4870 in your market though.
 
The rig in my sig, runs the game great at 1920x1200 DX 10 vista 64. The sun rays really do punish my video card, which usually causes some minor slow downs in the early evening and early morning because the effect is more pronounced during these periods. I do find that turning the sunray setting down has little effect on image quality. The lack of multi-core support really is a disappointment.
 
magoo said:
My computer runs this game beautifully at 19 X 12 full DX10 on Vista 64 bit.

The graphics truely are fabulous.

Unfortunately it still suffers from bugs and crashes, somehow after playing Shadow of Chernobyl it just seems natural though.

There is a new patch just released yesterday taking the game to 1.5.05, I believe.
Save games will not be interrupted according to release notes.
Click to expand...


Wow...you're better than Kyle. He couldn't run it well in DX10, but you could? :eek: Nice.
 
The line colors are mixed up on the legend of the apples to apples 4870x2 vs 4870 graph. ;)

Awesome review. I don't think my computer will be able to handle this game very well. As long as I can run it turned down and it still looks as good as the old one I'm fine.
 
My dual 8800GTs run it pretty well at 1920x1200, average around 30 FPS with some of the options tweaked. My concern is that the game needs patched big time, I have pretty much abandoned this game till the next patch since all my save games crash on load now.
 
SixtyWattMan said:
The line colors are mixed up on the legend of the apples to apples 4870x2 vs 4870 graph. ;)
Click to expand...

That graph is now fixed, thank you.

Ogilvy said:
Wow...you're better than Kyle. He couldn't run it well in DX10, but you could? :eek: Nice.
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Magoo is running CrossFireX, per his sig...

"[email protected],Gigabyte X48 DS4,4 GB Dominator @ 1100Hz,ATI 4870 X2s in CrossfireX,Swiftech WaterCooling, CoolerMaster 830 EVO(by Performance-PCs),power by Ultra X3 1000W."

But that 1.1 KHz timing on his memory may bite him in the ass. ;)
 
Stalker CS is single threaded - so the Quad @ 3.6 will more than likely be a bottleneck :(
 
Dugg.

Thanks for the review [H]. I'm very happy to have picked-up a 4870x2 when I had the opportunity to. The features and power it provides will definitely come in handy, as your review of Clear Sky demonstrates.
 
Seems that extra video RAM helps reduce the loading pauses in this game. I'm curious to see how a 1GB 4850 or 1GB 4870 would perform. I think hardocp's review style is best suited for this type of review, it was a good read.
 
vengence said:
From the [H]ard reviews, the 260 is generally the same or faster. Also, games aren't supporting DX10.1 so what does it matter if the hardware does?

As far as the pricing in non-US markets, it's generally much more expensive than the US markets. I'm surprised by the difference between the 260 and the 4870 in your market though.
Click to expand...

4870 1gb *cough

Theres a few 4870 1gb reviews floating around today you should check em out :p

Nice review. I just started playing this game and took me a while to tweak the settings under advanced and get all the sliders adjusted. This really helps me out now and I can see what setting does what. BTW just the regular "stalker" difficulty is a tough.
 
First of all great review

But I will second the idea of SLI coverage and a mid level card, like a 8800GT or 8800GTS to be included in reviews. As a SLI'er Id love to see how GTX 260 SLI compares to a 4870x2

SO this way we can see what the high level is like, and what to expect from most of our rigs. There is alot of us around the 8800 level still and its hard to guess where we would be on these graphs.
 
heatlesssun said:
Anyone here with 3x SLI with an insight as to performance of ClearSky?
Click to expand...

I play at 2560x1600 with the below settings. But I find that this game does not scale too well with 3 cards. My frames range form 60-85 during combat at any time of day. But I when I enable settings such as ssao my min frames drop to the mid 40s which makes the game feel unplayable. It feels like my screen gets "jerky" for the lack of a better word. So im curious as to wheter hardocp experienced the same. It wasnt like crysis where low frames feel very smooth.

2AA
4AF
Sun Quality: medium
Sun Rays: Disabled
SSAO: Disabled
Volumetric Light: Disabled
Everything else is either on or max
 
Since I know much of scaling n stuff on this game, tested alot, the 4th vga always seem like a pure waste for me, miiight be always a cpu bottleneck.
. Crossfire is just MAAAD in stalker SOC, and seems like it continue in CS. i dunno bout sli, i really dont know anyone with any Geforce products, except my brother who got a GTS 640 mb from his work for free.

And this may be cause all of my friends, AND me have had a lot of RMA issues with them, and Nvidia products generally seem to have more issues than ati.
But lastly, price.

Hardocp might not be see stuff from non-US view.
--------------------------------------------------------
DX10.1 Games:
Farcry 2 (Unreleased)
Assasins creed. (released)

As far as i know of.
Pro's of 4870. hdmi sound output. CF with almost any chipset with 2x PCI-E, there are really FEW that have a nforce chipset, except for NF4 for amd( ALOT of them still going around :p)

Anyways. the price in US is just soo diffrent, and review sites show soo much diffrence, in new games and like crysis AOC n stuff, the 4870 lacks, but other than that, it seems superiour due to more AA. anyhow.

I cannot complain about either of the cards i list which is something i can reccomend to any norwegian consumer, or simular priced countries: 4850, 3670, 4870, GTX260(and in sli) 4870X2 (priced SAME as 280GTX.
and a 8800 GT is just uhm, oookey, what space does this one fill, same with 3850 3870(priced same as 4850) 8800 GT is 25 bucks cheaper than a 4850, but whats 25 bucks for us ? thats about 3 days of non smoking for me.

prices in norway is pretty much messed up, and siimply, gotta be, norway and sweeden is a nerds dream due to hardware prices are nice vs salery.

soo, back on topic.
-------------------------
My le1620 i ran crysis @ 3640ish mhz. and guess what it did in stalker.
Didnt provide a "Better gameplay" but i got higher fps in AVG, but had a terrible minimum fps peaks, windows vista is an ARSE when it coemes to background services.
and this just confirmes hardocp's claims, i did it when i heard of it a long time ago, and dont have any graphs, 10 fps higher than my phenom @ 3ghz. at avg, but in the spaces where vista didnt do any work in background it was abit higher allowing more AA highest possible ingame settings(except AA) DX10 1280x1024.

This game ALSO makes a 2nd conclusion based on hardware
Gamers who JUST game, why bother buying a quad?
Buy a 2nd VGA instead ;)
 
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