Far Cry

Far Cry is a DirectX9 title that uses a number of DirectX9 and DirectX8 Shaders. The 1.31 patch also utilises PS2.x and PS3.0 shader paths, making use of their longer instruction length capabilities to collapse some rendering passes. The test we are using is a custom Firingsquad demo and the highest shader profile available is used, which on these boards result in the Shader Model 3.0 path for the X1800's and the Shader Model 2.x path for the previous generation Radeons.




Far Cry (FPS) 640x480 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024 1600x1200
X1800 XT 100.4 100.2 100.2 100.0 98.8
X1800 XL 100.2 100.1 100.2 99.2 91.2
X850 XT PE 100.6 100.3 100.3 99.7 93.8
X800 XT 100.9 100.5 100.3 98.5 89.2
 
X1800 XT % Faster than: 640x480 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024 1600x1200
X1800 XL 0.2% 0.0% 0.0% 0.8% 8.4%
X850 XT PE -0.2% -0.2% -0.1% 0.3% 5.4%
X800 XT -0.5% -0.3% -0.1% 1.6% 10.8%
 
X1800 XL % Faster than: 640x480 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024 1600x1200
X850 XT PE -0.4% -0.2% 0.0% -0.5% -2.8%
X800 XT -0.7% -0.4% -0.1% 0.8% 2.2%

Despite this title being a fairly intensive DX9 game when it was first introduced, this test displays more or less of a complete CPU limitation with the rendering performance of the boards here, hence there is very little difference between any of them.




Far Cry, 4x FSAA & 8x AF (FPS) 640x480 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024 1600x1200
X1800 XT 99.0 99.0 98.9 95.8 85.8
X1800 XL 99.0 98.9 97.7 84.9 66.6
X850 XT PE 99.4 99.6 97.0 79.6 61.2
X800 XT 99.4 98.9 93.7 71.0 54.5
 
X1800 XT % Faster than: 640x480 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024 1600x1200
X1800 XL 0.0% 0.1% 1.3% 12.9% 28.8%
X850 XT PE -0.4% -0.6% 2.0% 20.4% 40.2%
X800 XT -0.4% 0.1% 5.6% 34.9% 57.6%
 
X1800 XL % Faster than: 640x480 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024 1600x1200
X850 XT PE -0.4% -0.8% 0.7% 6.6% 8.8%
X800 XT -0.4% 0.0% 4.2% 19.5% 22.4%

Adding 4x FSAA and 8x AF to this particular Far Cry test makes it a little more graphics limited, such that the greater rendering power and bandwidth of the X1800 XT allows it to open up a 40% performance gap to the X850 XT PE. Comparing the performances the X1800 XL has in relation to the X800 XT highlights the efficiency gains R520 has over its previous generations, certainly where FSAA is concerned, with it performing up to 22% better; the efficiency gains also allow the X1800 XL to outperform the X850 XT PE at high resolutions.




Far Cry, 6x FSAA & 16x AF (FPS) 640x480 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024 1600x1200
X1800 XT 99.1 99.1 99.0 94.3 80.6
X1800 XL 98.8 98.8 95.4 76.6 58.8
X850 XT PE 98.8 98.0 85.6 60.0 46.0
X800 XT 99.5 95.1 77.2 53.5 40.8
 
X1800 XT % Faster than: 640x480 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024 1600x1200
X1800 XL 0.3% 0.3% 3.8% 23.1% 37.1%
X850 XT PE 0.3% 1.1% 15.7% 57.1% 75.3%
X800 XT -0.4% 4.1% 28.2% 76.3% 97.4%
 
X1800 XL % Faster than: 640x480 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024 1600x1200
X850 XT PE 0.0% 0.8% 11.5% 27.7% 27.8%
X800 XT -0.7% 3.8% 23.5% 43.2% 43.9%

With 6x FSAA and 16x AF enabled the R520 based boards are really able to distinguish themselves from their predecessors. The average FPS for the X1800 XT is still slightly above 80 at 1600x1200, dropping just a fifth from 640x480, despite these high image quality settings, and commands a 75% performance advantage to the previous generations high end X850 XT PE. The X1800 XL further underlines the differences between the two generations by having a performance advantage of up to 44% at high resolution in relation to the X800 XT.