Testing with 4xAA Enabled (Custom Demo)

Running with 4xAA is much more taxing on the cards. It is our opinion that AA in Far Cry 2 isn't highly necessary. The world is fairly low contrast, and with all the effects aliasing is not incredibly noticeable. It is present, of course, but AA isn't a necessity like it can be in other games. Especially at high resolution and small pixel sizes. At the very high end, or in working multi-GPU configurations, go ahead and turn on 4xAA. If you happen to be one of those gamers who really loves AA even when aliasing isn't terribly noticeable in a game, remember that 4xAA with Very High quality settings will generally perform about the same as Ultra High quality with no antialiasing. Of course, this is a trade off. We don't think it's worth it, but what looks good to one person doesn't always look good to another.

The minimum graphics requirement to run with Ultra High quality and 4xAA will be a GeForce 9800 GT or a Radeon HD 4830, but these cards will only get you barely playable framerates at 1024x768.

While the GeForce GTX 280 does regain it's lead over the Radeon HD 4870 1GB in this test, the AMD part still leads its competitors (the GTX 260 cards) at all playable resolutions. And once again, the 512MB part falls behind the GeForce GTX 260. The 512MB 4870 ran incredibly poorly at 2560x1600, though only the GTX 280 and SLI solutions remained playable.

Timedemo DX10 Ultra High 4xAA

The cheapest playable card at 1024x768 with these settings is the GeForce 9800 GT.

Timedemo DX10 Ultra High 4xAA

The cheapest playable card at 1280x1024 with these settings is the Radeon HD 4850.

Timedemo DX10 Ultra High 4xAA

The cheapest playable card at 1680x1050 with these settings is the GeForce GTX 260.

Timedemo DX10 Ultra High 4xAA

The cheapest playable card at 1920x1200 with these settings is the GeForce GTX 260.

Timedemo DX10 Ultra High 4xAA

The cheapest playable card at 2560x1600 with these settings is the GeForce GTX 280.

Testing with AnandTech's Custom Demo AMD Driver Caveats and Major Open Issues
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  • JonnyDough - Sunday, November 23, 2008 - link

    You should never buy a card for one game. If you're basing your purchase decision on just Far Cry 2 then you're a fool with more money than brains. Speculate about other games you're going to be playing in the future, and any others you currently own as well. THEN and only then should you be choosing a graphics card to purchase. If you buy the GTX 260 and then it doesn't run new games for the next year, then you essentially wasted your money. This is why it pays to stay well behind the curve. Buy a $100 card and $30 games, instead of a $300 card and $60 games.
  • SiliconDoc - Saturday, November 29, 2008 - link

    i GUESS YOU REPLIED TO HIM BUT DIDN'T READ WHAT HE WROTE jHONNY

    " lastly - driver issues. i dont JUST play farcry2. i play other games. just seems - and maybe im wrong and maybe things will change - that nvidia either avoids problems with games and/or fixes them better/more quickly than amd does. i dont want to have to wait or mess with things to get my game working. i want it working when i install it. "

    I see - " i don't JUST play farcry2" - as well as "avoids problems with games "

    So that would go beyond clearly and into DEFINITELY and beyond that and into ABSOLUTELY indicate he already stated he plays more than "just one game".
    I guess you were agreeing 100% with him ? Well, it wasn't clear but in case you weren't...
    Also, if someone buys a videocard for JUST ONE GAME - because that's al they play - why then they ARE NOT an idiot as you stated - they in fact do it because THEY PLAY JUST ONE GAME.
    So nixay to thatay as well.
    Next time instead of making incorrect rips, just say " you're correct I agree".
    Thanks
  • kr7400 - Tuesday, December 2, 2008 - link



    Can you please fucking die? Preferably by getting crushed to death in a garbage compactor, by getting your face cut to ribbons with a pocketknife, your head cracked open with a baseball bat, your stomach sliced open and your entrails spilled out, and your eyeballs ripped out of their sockets. *beep* bitch


    I would love to kick you hard in the face, breaking it. Then I'd cut your stomach open with a chainsaw, exposing your intestines. Then I'd cut your windpipe in two with a boxcutter. Then I'd tie you to the back of a pickup truck, and drag you, until your useless *beep* corpse was torn to a million *beep* useless, bloody, and gory pieces.

    Hopefully you'll get what's coming to you. *beep* bitch


    I really hope that you get curb-stomped. It'd be hilarious to see you begging for help, and then someone stomps on the back of your head, leaving you to die in horrible, agonizing pain. *beep*

    Shut the *beep* up f aggot, before you get your face bashed in and cut to ribbons, and your throat slit.

    You're dead if I ever meet you in real life, f ucker. I'll f ucking kill you.

    I would love to f ucking send your f ucking useless ass to the hospital in intensive care, fighting for your worthless life.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Po0j4ONZRGY">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Po0j4ONZRGY

    I wish you a truly painful, bloody, gory, and agonizing death, *beep*
  • Souka - Friday, November 21, 2008 - link

    Yeah... newegg.com has the evga part for $220 w/free ship and farcry 2.

    So in 6-9 months, when a new game comes out and you need more GPU horsepower, you can go pickup a 2nd video card for SLI action ...for perhaps $125-150...

  • phatmhatg - Friday, November 21, 2008 - link

    maybe a silly question...but will i be able to sli a core 192 with a core 216? my guess is no...
  • SirKronan - Saturday, November 22, 2008 - link

    YES. You will be able to SLI a 192 core with a 216 core.
  • Mr Roboto - Saturday, November 22, 2008 - link

    It's going to utilize only 192 SP's on both cards though. So if you own a 260 192 and plan to SLI two of them it makes no sense to buy a 260 216.
  • SirKronan - Saturday, November 22, 2008 - link

    Why wouldn't you? Unless you're silly and put the new 216 core in the secondary slot ... With the new 216 in primary position, titles that don't scale will see the minimal, but still positive gains of the 216 over the 192, and you're still getting a lot of extra cores for your SLI boost in the titles that do scale:

    http://forums.slizone.com/lofiversion/index.php?t2...">http://forums.slizone.com/lofiversion/index.php?t2...

    I would probably get an original 260 just because of current prices right now, but there's nothing wrong with the 216. nVidia did good on this one.

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