FarCry Patch v1.2 - SM 3.0 Performance on the GeForce 6 Series

Name: FarCry Patch v1.2 - SM 3.0 Performance on the GeForce 6 Series - Page 2
Brand: FarCry

by Marco Chiappetta — Friday, July 02, 2004, 05:00 PM EDT

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...

The HotHardware Test System

Intel Powered Screamer

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

FarCry Performance DirectX v9.0b vs. DirectX 9.0c

"Move Along Folks, Nothing to See Here!" - Frank Dreben, Police Squad

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.

Tags: GeForce, Patch, performance, rf, force, RMA, arc, IE, AR

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com