Conclusion

The main idea the new FarCry 1.2 benchmarks bring is that NVIDIA’s GeForce 6800-series graphics processors do have some internal speed reserves with support for Shader Model 3.0. Even though the reserves are not that dramatic at this time, in other games and on other levels of FarCry the speed increase may be more significant. With no sacrifice of image quality, Pixel Shaders 3.0 can boost the speed of certain graphics cards – this is what the benchmarks tell us today.

FarCry with Shader Model 3.0 and HDR, screenshot from nVNews.net

Unfortunately, we did not get any new effects with the Shader Model 3.0 path like those that were showcased earlier. Perhaps, Crytek will add the to the FarCry later, but maybe they are left for the upcoming FarCry Instincts mod.

The benchmark results achieved today in “Pure Mode” prove that the GeForce 6800 Ultra graphics cards is the fastest performer in FarCry in the majority of cases when it works using Shader Model 3.0 path. While the RADEON X800 XT delivers performance very close to that of the competitor, there are very few cases when the graphics card can outperform the GeForce 6800 Ultra with no full-scene antialiasing and anisotropic filtering enabled.

Slightly less powerful options – the GeForce 6800 GT and the GeForce 6800 – also prove to be extremely successful rivals for the RADEON X800 PRO and the RADEON 9800 XT respectively, according to FarCry benchmarks in “Pure Mode”. In fact, both GeForce 6800-series offerings at $399 and $299 price-points leave the rivals behind by quite a substantial margin and therefore can be considered as the best options for FarCry in terms of price/performance ratio.

The results of testing in “Eye-Candy” mode with full-scene antialiasing along with anisotropic filtering enabled tell us that the ATI RADEON X800 XT is more powerful option than the NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra under intensive load. Nevertheless, the GeForce 6800 GT and the GeForce 6800 leave the RADEON X800 PRO along with the RADEON 9800 XT behind. Even though the speed advantage is not really big, it can be noticed and proves the thesis about superiority of NVIDIA’s $299 and $399 offerings in term’s of price/performance ratio for the FarCry game.

For an unknown reason RADEON X800-series graphics products’ performance slightly dropped in FarCry version 1.2 in “Pure Mode”. The reasons for the drop are not clear, but may indicate that ATI also has some speed headroom with its latest family of graphics processors and the final judgement is yet to be made…