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Far Cry 2 Far Cry 2 has gathered a lot of interest since it was announced, and now that the game is out, it only seems natural that we add it to our benching toolbox. Unlike Crysis and Warhead, both of which use CryEngine2, Far Cry 2 uses a brand new engine called "Dunia". To test Far Cry 2, we used the internal benchmarking software to test the same resolutions and AA settings as Crysis. First up, we tested all three cards to the "Very High" preset:
(click for larger version) The results here are nothing short of astonishing. Probably the strangest thing is that all three cards performed nearly identical when 8xAA was applied. The 4870X2 ran away with the testing at 2x and 4xAA, and the 4850X2 sat in the middle between the 4870X2 and the GTX-280 at these settings. In general the 280 bested the 4850X2 at 0xAA and took its hardest hits going from 0xAA to 2xAA. The dive from 4xAA to 8xAA on the ATi cards is a little disturbing, and I wonder if the performance will improve in future drivers. Keep in mind that the 4850X2 was tested with out of the box drivers, and I would not be surprised if there was a hotfix on launch day.
(click for larger version) At the Ultra preset, we see a similar picture; however the 280's performance loss as AA is applied seems less drastic. The 4850X2 again has the upper hand at 2xAA and 4xAA, and is in a dead heat at 0xAA and 8xAA. The minimum frame rate is consistently lower than that of the GTX-280 throughout the test suite, in fact, both ATi cards seem to have a much wider gap between minimum and maximum, while the 280 remains much more consistent. Race Driver: GRID GRID is the latest racing game from Codemasters, the same company that has brought us titles such as Colin McRae, Operation Flashpoint, and TOCA. If you haven't had the opportunity to play GRID, I highly recommend you give the game a shot. It reminds me very much of one of my all-time favorite racing games: Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed. For testing in GRID, I tested at 1920x1200 with all settings maxed out, using 8xAA. I used the San Francisco circuit, with the Ravenwest Viper in the Pro Muscle category. Frame rate was captured by FRAPS, reporting Minimum, Maximum and Average frame rates. Most sites report Average frame rates only, which is a bit of a disservice, as I think Minimum frame rate is a bigger factor into whether or not game play is adversely affected, especially if Average frame rates exceed 60FPS.
As you can see, the 4850X2 just tears GRID up, with a minimum frame rate of 70FPS, a max of 127FPS, averaging out at 95FPS. Not shabby at all.
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