FarCry Patch v1.2 - SM 3.0 Performance on the GeForce 6 Series
DX9.0b vs. DX9.0c
Because we had to make some major changes to our test machine's operating system, and were patching a game that we normally used for benchmarking, we decided to run benchmarks during each step of the upgrade process to see exactly where the performance gains (if any) were coming from. After installing Windows XP SP2, which incorporates DirectX 9.0c, we ran a batch of timedemos using our custom demo and compared them to some reference scores taken with DirectX 9.0b installed. Then we patched FarCry, and re-ran the same custom timedemo to see how much of a difference simply applying the patch made to performance. Lastly, we ran some new tests with four new demos incorporated into the patch to demonstrate the performance differences between Shader Model 2.0 and Shader Model 3.0 on NVIDIA's GeForce 6800 GT and 6800...
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| Hardware: Processor - Motherboard - Video Cards - Memory - Audio - Hard Drive - Optical Drive - Other - Software: Operating System - Chipset Drivers - DirectX - Video Drivers - |
Intel Pentium 4 3.2GHz DFI LANPARTY Pro875B i875P "Canterwood" Chipset ATi Radeon X800 Pro GeForce 6800 GT GeForce 6800 (128MB) 1024MB Kingston HyperX PC3500 CAS 2 Integrated SoundMax Audio Western Digital "Raptor" 36GB - 10,000RPM - SATA Lite-On 16X DVD-ROM 3.5" Floppy Drive Windows XP Professional SP1 & SP2 Intel INF v6.0.1.1002 DirectX 9.0b DirectX 9.0c ATI Catalyst v4.6 NVIDIA Forceware v61.45 |
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As you can see, installing DirectX 9.0c had virtually no affect on performance. Most of the frame-rates were marginally higher, but in a few tests frame-rates were fractionally lower. After killing a few hours running these tests on ATi and NVIDIA hardware, we can safely say that DirectX 9.0c, in and of itself, has no measurable impact on performance with FarCry.
