High-end: Far Cry 2

Far Cry 2 (DirectX 10)



Far Cry 2 is the spiritual sequel to one of the best selling and longest living games on the PC though this title was developed not by Crytek, but by Ubisoft directly using a completely new engine as well.  The game is set in Africa and you have malaria – what else do you need to know?

Windows 7 series: NVIDIA and AMD Graphics and Gaming Performance - Graphics Cards 250

Windows 7 series: NVIDIA and AMD Graphics and Gaming Performance - Graphics Cards 251

Windows 7 series: NVIDIA and AMD Graphics and Gaming Performance - Graphics Cards 252
 Far Cry 2 settings

Far Cry 2 includes a great benchmarking utility that allows us to setup for in-game testing of all varieties and includes both the ability to benchmark based on time (variable frame count) or based on speed (fixed frame count) – we went with the time-based option to simulate real-world gaming and allowing for apples-to-apples comparisons. 

Windows 7 series: NVIDIA and AMD Graphics and Gaming Performance - Graphics Cards 253

Windows 7 series: NVIDIA and AMD Graphics and Gaming Performance - Graphics Cards 254

Windows 7 series: NVIDIA and AMD Graphics and Gaming Performance - Graphics Cards 255

Windows 7 series: NVIDIA and AMD Graphics and Gaming Performance - Graphics Cards 256

Windows 7 series: NVIDIA and AMD Graphics and Gaming Performance - Graphics Cards 257

Windows 7 series: NVIDIA and AMD Graphics and Gaming Performance - Graphics Cards 258

Far Cry 2 again gives us some interesting results to evaluate.  First, when we look at the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285 we can clearly see that the Windows 7 driver is well behind the Windows Vista driver.  The AMD driver is actually faster on Windows 7 than on Windows Vista – a good sign for the future of the OS when similar driver branches are used.  The exception is at 2560×1600 where the pure weight of the graphics engine is apparently too much to bear.

When we look at GPU to GPU results, the AMD Radeon HD 4870 X2 is clearly the better performer in Far Cry 2 in both Windows Vista and Windows 7. 

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