Results with Radeon 9700Pro and FarCry, whats causing it?

[Cali3350]

Little something i dont understand but im sure you all can explain for me. In Farcry, With all settings max, the game is "playable" yet NOT smooth. However, i realized, turning on 2xAA and 16XPAF yielded little to no performance hit. Setting the games graphcis to medium yields MUCH improved Framerate. What part is being stressed at max settings allows the card to get the AA and AF "free", even though the framerate is so much lower. Is it the core thats being maxed so bandwidth things like AA take no hit? Other way around, Bandwidth being maxed so core things like AA take no hit (i dont know how it all works - sorry). Just curious whats casuing it, as its the first game to exhibit such behavior, and id like to know for future purchases.

Thanks, and sorry to to bring the level of conversation on these forums down a little

Athlon XP 2600+
1024mb DDR333
Radeon 9700Pro.

 

[Tim Murray]

Uh, vsync? CPU limitation?

 

[Cali3350]

Uh, vsync? CPU limitation?

hmm/ well vsunc is off and i doubt its CPU because medium graphic settings cause the framerate to surge. Im pretty sure something is limiting the card, and AA and AF just dont have that much of an effect on the limiting factor.

 

[Tim Murray]

Well that's goofy. If it's fillrate limited in any respect, even shader limited, I'd imagine that AF would have an effect, no?

 

[banksie]

FarCry mixes CPU and GPU loading quite a bit with it's quality settings.

Certainly I have found that with a Barton 2500+ and a 9800 Pro that going to Very High settings stresses the CPU more than the GPU and I can activate 2x anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering at little to no framerate cost.

Dropping the settings to medium loses some of the special effects like sharks in the water, birdlife and the like which probably frees up the CPU a bit more and pushes the stress loading back onto the GPU again.

There is a reason why the documentation with the game stresses that for High settings a 3GHz or better CPU is recommended.

 

[Farid]

Banksie is right, you're CPU limited when you turn the Settings to the max.
That might explain some result of the N40 on farcry by the way.

 

[Sanctusx2]

Do you actually see any visual differences in-game with 2xAA and 16xAF on? Far Cry has its own in-game AF/AA settings. If you see absolutely no performance hit it's possible those might be overriding the ones in the drivers. (Since 2xAA/16AF don't sound like the Far Cry selection options, I'm assuming you did those in the drivers).

 

[Cali3350]

FarCry mixes CPU and GPU loading quite a bit with it's quality settings.

Certainly I have found that with a Barton 2500+ and a 9800 Pro that going to Very High settings stresses the CPU more than the GPU and I can activate 2x anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering at little to no framerate cost.

Dropping the settings to medium loses some of the special effects like sharks in the water, birdlife and the like which probably frees up the CPU a bit more and pushes the stress loading back onto the GPU again.

There is a reason why the documentation with the game stresses that for High settings a 3GHz or better CPU is recommended.

Never actaully thought of that. thanks. Guess ill hold off on a new Graphics card and just save some money for a good upgrade. Dissapointng a 2600+ is already limiting me to sub 30 fps though.

 

[Diplo]

Type /r_displayinfo 1 in the Far Cry console to actually see your FPS. As has been mentioned, Far Cry will probably over-ride driver settings for AA and AF, so check these in the config.

 

[Druga Runda]

I sooo agree... I have run that demo test, and meh... it's not good... on a 2500+... and I will have to make this guy run @ 2200 and that's it.

I had some problems initially, when I just bought the CPU, it wasn't stable but it wasn't crashing straight away either, so I didn't have the need to tweak, but the need is here now.

Is there anyone with a Barton @2200 running with Max settings? I find the max much better comparing to medium, as the wildlife adds to the whole immersion effect to me.

I'd actually like to run 1280*1024 with no AA no AF with max settings as much as possible... that is on R9800 non pro, and 2500+, I will see how playable I can make it. So far on default speeds - not good enough.