FarCry 1.2 patch - up to 33% improvement for NV40 (w/benchmarks)

[413xram]

The problems with checkered floor looks like it is fixed.

 

[Bar81]

Originally posted by: BFG10K

Usage of SM3.0 to boost performance in future games is fine but then who cares about SM3.0 if it looks exactly like SM2.0;

Following that reasoning I guess you don't care if you have a 9500 Pro or a X800 XT because the cards look the same. Also you don't want faster drivers either because they look the same as older drivers.

Your logic is silly.

What's silly is your inability to understand my point. What I am saying is that SM3.0 is simply a speed boost. Why would you trumpet the feature as some kind of trump card in the visual department as nvidia has clearly done and then show it simply to be a speed boost. It's like ATI spending millions of dollars to hype its Hyper-Z II "now featured in Half Life 2." Who cares, it's a speed boost, what does it matter what it's called if all it does is speed up performance. My issue is with all the HYPE and LIES out of nvidia regarding SM3.0 If they would have just stfu and sped up performance we'd be a lot better off.

 

[CaiNaM]

Originally posted by: BFG10K

Usage of SM3.0 to boost performance in future games is fine but then who cares about SM3.0 if it looks exactly like SM2.0;

Following that reasoning I guess you don't care if you have a 9500 Pro or a X800 XT because the cards look the same. Also you don't want faster drivers either because they look the same as older drivers.

Your logic is silly.

so is your analogy

the performance difference between nv40 & r420 is nowhere near the difference between a 9500pro and a x800PRO.


perhaps he just didn't elaborate well? i took what he said as meaning that while the slight performance difference is nice (at least with far cry), it's only under very specific conditions. overall, the performance difference is not so noticeable, and offering nothing else so far, that anyone is going to cry over not having sm3 (a prediction many nvidia fanboys made previously).

 

[Ackmed]

I would have to agree with Bar81. I just finished playing thrue Farcry, for the second time yesterday. Finally beat it without cheating. I wont play thru it again just for 10fps more. I probably would if there was a good visual increase, like they said there would be. The only way I can see this benefiting me, is if they release a expansion pack. I would pick that up, and would gladly take the 10 or so more frames. But by then, ATi may have a card with SM3.0 capabilities, who knows.

I would also like to see more reviews, with real gameplay. No their craptastic way of using demos, with no real gameplay. I dont understand why they cant get a good working demo system out. I would also like to see real WHQL drivers from NV, and the 4.7's from ATi that are *supposed* to be be faster.

Has anyone licensed out Cryteks engine for future games? It seems to be pretty good, and if ATi doesnt have a SM3.0 card out, it would make a difference in choosing between the two.

 

[Shad0hawK]

Originally posted by: Bar81

Originally posted by: GeneralGrievous

It didn't need any more performance with the X800 pro I was using, but then again I use a 17" WS LCD, so 1600x1200 is pointless for me. What's the point then of incorporating SM3.0 into all the already released games? To speed up performance? fanfreakingtastic. I'm gonna wait months to finish Painkiller just so it runs a little faster? Please, SM3.0 is a non-feature if this is all there is. They might as well have said that their cards are faster with the 1.2 patch and left it at that, no need to go trumpeting SM3.0 when it does nothing but allow the card to render faster.

What did you think SM3 would be? Free performance gain = potential higher settings/resolution so therefore better IQ.

I thought it would be THIS since nvidia SAID IT WOULD BE THIS:

http://www.materiel.be/news/12004/FC-PS3.0.jpg

actually nvidia did not say that, crytek did, nvidia did not make the game.

besides they have to ahve something farcry2....

i am happy, i can up my res with higher AA AF LOD settings and STILL get a faster FPS!

some ppl are just never satisfied...

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: dimasukr
Well it does look like shots from NVIDIA 6800 launch party where Far cry was shown with much more detail in rocks and in Budda were just marketing bull after all and not SM3.
I just don't see any difference in IQ between 2.0 and 3.0.
At launch everybody was implying that we will get a huge IQ boost and they even had a Far cry with "this SM3 patch" running on several demo machines.
It did look suspicious - since framerate seemed very low.
All of it just goes to show how dirty GPU wars have become.

It was determined long ago that is was PS1.1 to PS2.0, not 2.0 to 3.0.

 

[Ackmed]

Then explain the screenshot Bar81 posted. They pimped that a lot.

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: Ackmed
Then explain the screenshot Bar81 posted. They pimped that a lot.

Thats PS2.0/3.0 with HDR and VDM, when we will see that, who knows.

 

[Acanthus]

AT Review on farcry 1.2

 

[LocutusX]

quick answer please... will the new patch do anything performance-wise for my radeon 9800P? a simple yes or no will suffice

 

[caz67]

Great results. Good Work Nvidia

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: LocutusX
quick answer please... will the new patch do anything performance-wise for my radeon 9800P? a simple yes or no will suffice

It should run identically.

 

[gururu]

tech report has an analysis too. shows the similar gains, but x800xt and 6800u are nearly dead even; some wins, some losses.
In this game, all I think is that PS 3 let Nvidia catch up. We have to see if PS 3 in other games leaves ati much further in the dust

 

[ZobarStyl]

Did anyone else see those times when the vanilla 6800 actually caught the pro? I know it's just a few situations but I'm thinking that card has potential to be a lot better than a "well-oiled 5950" as FiringSquad called it. Either way, I'll still want a GT

 

[BChico]

Anyone know how big the performance hit would be to run a 6800gt on a 4x slot rather than an 8x?

 

[ZobarStyl]

Practically nil perf hit, but you'll probably be CPU limited by anything in a 4x only board

 

[jasonja]

Originally posted by: Bar81

What's the point then of incorporating SM3.0 into all the already released games? To speed up performance? fanfreakingtastic.
[/quote]

Simple, nVidia paid them money to pimp SM 3.0 in order to give nVidia an edge up on ATI. TWIMTBP dollars hard at work. In most cases developers don't have the money or time to go making special paths for IHVs, so they will use the lowest common denominator (SM 2.0), otherwise they are spending a lot of development time and money on a very tiny portion of their market. Unless there's substantial reason to implement a IHV specific feature (in this case nVidia greenbacks) most won't do it.

 

[Draco]

I'm sold.... now if I could only finda 6800 GT somewhere :brokenheart:

 

[BChico]

Got a 3.06 with 1024 1066 rdram, i should be ok.

 

[Genx87]

What's silly is your inability to understand my point. What I am saying is that SM3.0 is simply a speed boost.

And the problem with this is? Everbody and their mother has been saying SM3.0 will allow programmers to code shaders in a way that will allow them to run faster. Gee the first SM 3.0 patch comes out and "gasp" the game runs faster.

This is one of the major selling points to programmers with SM3.0 It allows them to code the game like a regular program.

The pretty screenies you saw are HDR which afaik has nothing to do with SM3.0 SM2.0 can do HDR just fine as HL2 will use this on SM2.0 products.

And some of you wanted to know about minimum fps.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/farcry30.html

This review gives you that answer and it looks pretty good for Nvidia.

 

[imported_obsidian]

Originally posted by: Bar81
What's silly is your inability to understand my point. What I am saying is that SM3.0 is simply a speed boost. Why would you trumpet the feature as some kind of trump card in the visual department as nvidia has clearly done and then show it simply to be a speed boost. It's like ATI spending millions of dollars to hype its Hyper-Z II "now featured in Half Life 2." Who cares, it's a speed boost, what does it matter what it's called if all it does is speed up performance. My issue is with all the HYPE and LIES out of nvidia regarding SM3.0 If they would have just stfu and sped up performance we'd be a lot better off.

This is what happens when you can't complain about a cards performance. You bitch about the marketing. Get over it man. SM3.0 clearly makes a difference. It has offered a signifigant speed boost in a couple weeks of patching an existing game just by going from 2.0 > 3.0. I'd be willing to bet that the speed boost would be even more with a game designed around SM3.0 since 3.0 offers more overhead to play with. Maybe enough to make an IQ difference.

As far as NVIDIA's hype, maybe wait until native 3.0 games come out. Not just after the first patch for one game. And for lies, I believe it wasn't too long ago when ATI was telling reviewers to make sure full trilinear filtering is on NVIDIA cards to "level" the playing field.

 

[Flashram]

Originally posted by: Draco
I'm sold.... now if I could only finda 6800 GT somewhere :brokenheart:

Outpost.com has them in stock for $399. Overnight shipping is around $9. Should get it tomorrow if you order today before midnight.

 

[TStep]

How does this figure into the picture?? Would this allow the benefits of SM3.0 to be had on a 5900 series or any current ATI? Is this a patch that will allow say a 9800 to automatically use the coding in Farcry v1.2?

I am not up to speed on these things, so any info will help.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: TStep
How does this figure into the picture?? Would this allow the benefits of SM3.0 to be had on a 5900 series or any current ATI? Is this a patch that will allow say a 9800 to automatically use the coding in Farcry v1.2?

I am not up to speed on these things, so any info will help.

Interesting stuff, thanks for the link. Bump for one of our graphics Gurus to give clear answers. I would venture a guess that while it looks to do some of what SM3 can do, it's pointless because ATi is going SM3 too according to what I've read, so why use it? I'd also hazzard a guess that no way will any of that let non-SM3 hardware use it's path.

 

[reever]

Originally posted by: TStep
How does this figure into the picture??

Ati will probably use it for far cry to also speed up performance, since the CEO of farcry said SM3.0 was to speed up per-pixel lighting, now ati can do it with a trick to get a similar speed up