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

[GeneralGrievous]

Eye candy (AA/AF) tests added.

Same pecking order as usual. XT > Ultra > GT > Pro > non-Ultra

 

[Gamingphreek]

The only reason ATI wins those is because AF is enabled. Nvidia takes huge performance hits when AF is in use because it takes control of a whole shader unit, or ALU.

Also what do you mean by same pecking order. It was my understanding that the 6800UE was for the most part, though marginally, faster. Not huge performance gains but all in all faster than the XT. To be a better card you dont have to win every single test, i think that the 6800U wins about 60-65% of all tests including AA and AF. The main drop off is whhen AF is enabled.

-Kevin

 

[futuristicmonkey]

Now I'm not sure about the rest of you, but I always enable AF on my 9600 Pro - it's basically free, and it does look nice.

And, getting back to my original thought :

whereas the RADEON 9800 XT does not seem to be a really strong rival for the GeForce 6800, at least, in FarCry.

When was the 9800xt supposed to be a rival for the 6800nu? Well, atleast in the eye-candy benches it seems like a good one, which is funny because nVidia did claim nearly 2x the performance of the preceding generation. But, in reality, the 9800xt ended up beating the 6800 - sometimes. Ah...if only i were still an ATI fanboy.

 

[lowinor]

Originally posted by: Matthias99

Originally posted by: lowinor

Originally posted by: Matthias99
IMO, OpenGL is easier to do *simple* things with. When you start getting into the extensions, it gets more complicated, whereas DirectX has more complex things built into the core API. Hopefully OpenGL 2.0 (whenever it gets approved) will address some of this.

That's at least understandable, but I don't think I'd use the term 'skill' to describe what it takes to manage said extensions.

Either way, the skill in developing 3d graphics lies in algorithm design, the API has little to do with this beyond which hardware features it enables.

I didn't say it took 'skill' (perhaps you're attributing someone else's quote to me?), just that it was more complicated.

Certainly both APIs are comparable; there's only so many ways to do 3D rendering.

Sorry, the original comment that got me started was stnicralisk saying "OpenGL actually takes skill to program" -- something I don't really agree with, speaking as someone who has used both APIs.

 

[RussianSensation]

Originally posted by: Ackmed

Originally posted by: GeneralGrievous
Why does xbit insist on not doing AA/AF benches? These numbers are mostly worthless for comparing card to card.

They dont insist on doing test without AA/AF. Read it again, they said they will add them later.

FS also has a 2.0b review up.

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/far_cry_ps2.0b/

This is another great review that I was going to link, but you beat me to it (actually the graphs at firingsquad are much easier to read for me) Clearly X800xt pe is the fastest card for Far Cry, and often by a lot; which is far more believable considering 6800ultra was slower than x800xt pe with sm3.0 support and ati didnt even have its optimizations enabled yet. Even xbitlabs sister site, www.digit-life.com, showed in their article that x800xt pe was faster when AA/AF was enabled - Linky

BTW, they included an update for the xbitlabs article where they finally included AA/AF analysis.

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: BFG10K
I'd have liked to see some AA/AF benchmarks.

BFG,
I live to help you out:

http://www.elitebastards.com/page.php?pageid=5838&head=1&comments=1
Definitely a break for ATI, although performance here is and has been close all along, with the XTPE in general ahead.

Will be interesting to see if other developers will go to the work to do this for ATI.

 

[RussianSensation]

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
The only reason ATI wins those is because AF is enabled. Nvidia takes huge performance hits when AF is in use because it takes control of a whole shader unit, or ALU.

Also what do you mean by same pecking order. It was my understanding that the 6800UE was for the most part, though marginally, faster. Not huge performance gains but all in all faster than the XT. To be a better card you dont have to win every single test, i think that the 6800U wins about 60-65% of all tests including AA and AF. The main drop off is whhen AF is enabled.

-Kevin

First of all, no one in their right mind would spend $400-500US and not use AF.
6800UE was marginally faster? Please look at the benchmarks again. X800xt pe won every single test at 1600x1200 4AA/16AF. Where are you getting 6800U winning 60-65%? and you mention this included AA/AF? Not only does X800xt pe win at 1600x1200 AA/AF enabled, but it wins 90% of the time in all other resolutions as well. Who cares about "pure" performance mode when the top end cards can play the games with eye candy and produce acceptable frame rates?

So far, Far Cry - ATI (1), Nvidia - Doom 3 (1)

1:1 for both companies

It's still a close battle, but 6800GT appears to be a great steal at the moment considering x800xts are hovering around $540.