X-bit labs

FarCry Performance Revisited: ATI Strikes Back with Shader Model 2.0b

Category: Video

by Anton Shilov , Alexey Stepin

[ 07/25/2004 | 08:08 AM ]

The latest 1.2 patch for the currently most-discussed game not only enabled Shader Model 3.0 on NVIDIA’s GeForce 6 hardware, but also brought Shader Model 2.0b for ATI’s latest RADEON visual processing units in order to improve performance and image quality. X-bit labs has run an exhaustive selection of FarCry benchmarks to find out whether long pixel shaders along with geometry instancing helped ATI to bring the performance up.
UPDATE: X-bit labs have added scores in FSAA and anisotropic filtering mode to the article.

Table of contents:

• Introduction
  
• Shader Model 3.0 vs Shader Model 2.0b: Long Pixel Shaders to Improve Performance
  
• Geometry Instancing: See the Difference!
  
• FarCry to Get HDR Lighting, 3Dc, etc…
  
• Image Quality Comparison
  
• FarCry 1.2: Testbed and Methods
  
• Graphics Cards’ Performance, Pure Mode
  
• Training Level
  
• Research Level
  
• Catacombs Level
  
• Volcano Level
  
• Pier Level
  
• Pier Level, Extreme Geometry
  
• Graphics Cards’ Performance, FSAA + Anisotropic Filtering Mode
  
• Training Level
  
• Research Level
  
• Catacombs Level
  
• Volcano Level
  
• Pier Level
  
• Pier Level, Extreme Geometry
  
• Conclusion
  

UPDATE: Added section with performance numbers for the "Eye-Candy" mode with full-scene antialiasing and anisotropic filtering activated. More comments in "Conclusion" section.

Introduction

The most-demanding first person shooter game currently available has not only made it to the top of gamers’ lists, but also has become the No.1 benchmark for hardware reviewers. Being the only title currently available that uses DirectX 9.0 in all its glory, the FarCry reserves a lot of headroom for its developers along with graphics processor makers to tweak the game’s settings and render paths in order to achieve maximum speed.

Early in July, 2004, Crytek and NVIDIA released a patch and a driver that enabled Shader Model 3.0 use in the FarCry game for performance acceleration purposes. However, Shader Model 3.0 if far not the only way to improve speed by using more advanced rendering techniques: apparently, Shader Model 2.0b that is supported by ATI’s hardware is also capable of boosting the speed up, according to ATI, who will shortly release a new driver version that enables the capability.

Today we have a chance to evaluate performance of ATI’s latest RADEON X800-series visual processing units with additional speed increase provided by well-organized programming of pixel shaders along with geometry pipeline