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Farcry Patch Gets Nvidia Shader Engine Boost

Posted by simoniker on from the hilarious-benchmarking-shenanigans dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Anandtech has posted a detailed article on good-looking PC FPS Farcry's forthcoming 1.2 patch which takes advantage of Nvidia's Shader Model 3.0 engine. The patch is supposed to boost Farcry performance for all video cards, but with Nvidia [supposedly] getting the biggest boost from SM3. (Further details on Nvidia's SM3 engine can be found via HardOCP) Benchmarks are included in the Anandtech article." The article also notes: "ATI assures us that they have also been working with CryTek on their efforts. Since we have seen a performance improvement with the latest driver and new 1.2 patch, we don't have any reason to think that anything extraordinarily fishy is going on behind the scenes between NVIDIA and CryTek."

4 of 21 comments (clear)

  1. Um, don't get too excited about that 15% by stoneymonster · · Score: 4, Informative

    The 15% speed boost is in "run" speed, i.e. the speed with which your character places one foot in front of another while fleeing drooling monsters, not a 15% FPS boost on your video card. The poster is confusicated.

    1. Re:Um, don't get too excited about that 15% by Marc_Hawke · · Score: 2, Informative

      Probably not. You have an 'endurance' meter. You can 'sprint' (ie extra speed burst).

      In the article is said there was a 15% run speed increase, and a 30% run duration increase. So, I'm guessing they are just talking about sprinting. That means normal movement is probably unaffected.

      --
      --Welcome to the Realm of the Hawke--
  2. Or if you don't have a 6800 by Cornflake917 · · Score: 2, Informative

    The patch only takes advantage of the Geforce 6800. And if you look at the benchmark's it adds about 2 fps. Not something I would spend 400 bucks on.

    --
    Abaddon: An Xbox 360 Indie game
  3. Um, poster was right. Maybe you check facts too? by Vaevictis666 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Actually no, he's right. Check out link number 3 (the actual benchmark) and go to one of the tests.

    For example, on the "Level Analysis: research" page, at 1600x1200 no AA/AF:

    Card SM2 SM3 Increase
    GF6800 Ultra Extreme 76.4 87.9 17.4%
    GF6800 Ultra 67.9 77.6 14.3%
    GF6800 GT 60.9 70.0 14.9%
    GF6800 39.0 47.9 22.8%
    Radeon x800 XT Plat 69.6 69.6 0%
    Radeon X800 XT 64.9 64.9 0%
    Radeon X800 Pro 49.8 49.8 0%

    I'd say that looks like a 15% or more increase for nvidia cards...