FarCry at 1280x1024, Radeon 9800 PRO Antialiasing & Anisotropic filtering HARDWARE GURUS take a look | Forums

[Damon0306]

Hey guys recently built a new computer mainly for FarCry and the next generation of games that are on the way.

My old system :

ABIT KG7-RAID, Athlon 1400MHZ, 1024MB PC2100 DDR
ATI Radeon 9800 PRO 128MB.
SoundBlaster Audigy Gamer.
Seagate Cheetah 18.4GB ULTRA-160-SCSI 15,000rpm Hard Drive.

I do not run my games anything LESS then 1280x1024 85HZ because I am using a 21' monitor.

With this setup I was able to run FarCry with all the settings at medium.

Antialiasing set at LOW, Anisotropic filtering set at 1.

At these specs the game ran OK. But when there were more then a few guys on the screen there were MAJOR slow-downs. I suspect that my processor was the cause.

NEW SYSTEM :

ABIT IC7-MAX3 Pentium-4 3400MHZ
2048MB of Corsair DDR-500 Platinum memory
ATI Radeon 9800 PRO 128MB.
SoundBlaster Audigy-2 ZS-Gamer.
Seagate Cheetah 73.4GB ULTRA-320-SCSI 15,000rpm Hard Drive.

I am very happy with the new results, I can now run the game with all settings set at Ultra-High.

When it came to fooling with Antialiasing & Anisotropic filtering the best combo I was able to use again at 1280x1024 85HZ was :

Antialiasing set to NONE
Anisotropic filtering set at 2. Sometimes I can crank filtering to 4, the game looks really nice, there is a huge difference when looking out over the ocean with this setting at 4, but there are some slowdowns and in intense firefights the game starts to become un-playable. So I usually keep it at 2.

QUESTION : Is my bottleneck right now my CPU or video-card? I plan on upgrading to a Radeon X800 Platinum 256MB when they cards become available. If I do, do you think then I could run Antialiasing and Anisotropic BOTH to there max settings at 1280x1024 without any slowdowns?

I would stay with my Radeon 9800 PRO 128MB, but I really need to put this card back into my Athlon system (which is still a nice little system very capable of playing lots of games)

[Damon0306]

Hey guys recently built a new computer mainly for FarCry and the next generation of games that are on the way.

My old system :

ABIT KG7-RAID, Athlon 1400MHZ, 1024MB PC2100 DDR
ATI Radeon 9800 PRO 128MB.
SoundBlaster Audigy Gamer.
Seagate Cheetah 18.4GB ULTRA-160-SCSI 15,000rpm Hard Drive.

I do not run my games anything LESS then 1280x1024 85HZ because I am using a 21' monitor.

With this setup I was able to run FarCry with all the settings at medium.

Antialiasing set at LOW, Anisotropic filtering set at 1.

At these specs the game ran OK. But when there were more then a few guys on the screen there were MAJOR slow-downs. I suspect that my processor was the cause.

NEW SYSTEM :

ABIT IC7-MAX3 Pentium-4 3400MHZ
2048MB of Corsair DDR-500 Platinum memory
ATI Radeon 9800 PRO 128MB.
SoundBlaster Audigy-2 ZS-Gamer.
Seagate Cheetah 73.4GB ULTRA-320-SCSI 15,000rpm Hard Drive.

I am very happy with the new results, I can now run the game with all settings set at Ultra-High.

When it came to fooling with Antialiasing & Anisotropic filtering the best combo I was able to use again at 1280x1024 85HZ was :

Antialiasing set to NONE
Anisotropic filtering set at 2. Sometimes I can crank filtering to 4, the game looks really nice, there is a huge difference when looking out over the ocean with this setting at 4, but there are some slowdowns and in intense firefights the game starts to become un-playable. So I usually keep it at 2.

QUESTION : Is my bottleneck right now my CPU or video-card? I plan on upgrading to a Radeon X800 Platinum 256MB when they cards become available. If I do, do you think then I could run Antialiasing and Anisotropic BOTH to there max settings at 1280x1024 without any slowdowns?

I would stay with my Radeon 9800 PRO 128MB, but I really need to put this card back into my Athlon system (which is still a nice little system very capable of playing lots of games)

[XBN202]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>
I would stay with my Radeon 9800 PRO 128MB, but I really need to put this card back into my Athlon system (which is still a nice little system very capable of playing lots of games)<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Try the 9800XT. With more memory and slightly faster processing, it may solve your lag. They're still expensive as hell, but hopefully once the new ATI comes out this month the prices will drop on the 9800's. The new nVidia should help drive the prices down too.

HOPEFULLY!

EDIT: I would think your CPU is fine. The bottleneck is the vid.

[GreatBarracoota]

Why didn't you get the X800 or the 6800? You have more than enough RAM. If you get rid of one 512MB stick and the 9800Pro, you will have enough to upgrade to a X800.

P4 3.0GHz - 800MHz FSB
Kingmax 512mb DDR400 PC3200
Seagate Barracuda 120G 7200rpm
ATI Radeon AIW 9800Pro
Creative SB Live! 5.1
Altec Lansing 251 - Dolby Digital 5.1
Viewsonic P95f+ 19" CRT

[Damon0306]

I was going to buy the 256MB 9800 XT for this new machine, this way I could keep the 128MB 9800 PRO in my Athlon system.

But now there is no point in hell to buy a 9800 XT because the X800 is coming out.

I just want to hear that my CPU is NOT THE BOTTLENECK, because if that were the case that would really stink.

[MoBass]

"Your CPU is not the bottleneck!"


seriously, once you get one of the top new vid cards you will be able to play @ 1280*1024, everything at very/ultra high, with AA and AF.

[Djiant]

you don't need the new cards for that.
I already run it on 1280*1024, except for the
AA (0) and AF (1) rest is very high, water=ultra high.
Card--&gt; fx5900U 256MB DDR; system=768MB DDR400 pc3200.
AMD 3000+ 2.2 GHz
I get an average fps of 30-40 and with this its running smooth. I even tried it in 1600*1200 only then the fps drops with 10.
But there were no major problems.

Therefore I can't understand why a lot must have a fps of 60-70. 30-40 runs just fine.
Mayby its just a matter of maintaining your computer. Just keep trying with different settings. I bet a lot can run FarCry with higher settings than they do now.

Ok, if you want it to play with everything the max, and still want a fps of 70, the new cards are a must.
The choice is yours....

[Ru.]

"30-40 runs just fine"

Each to their own; running smoothly is very subjective and i find getting above around 40 is good for me. Because it varies, this means that ideally I want an average higher than this.

As another example, some people don't even know when their monitor is at 65Hz refresh rate but it drives me nuts; I have to have 75Hz minimum.

[mrgrizzly]

Far Cry is amazing but MAN the hardware for this thing is a bit nuts.

I have a AMD 3000XP with a GeForce 5900 Ultra and 1 GB of ram and even cranked down to HIGH on all settings with no Anti-alias it was laggy in spots. I have heard the ATI 9800 handles Far Cry better than NVIDIA.

I mean just cause NVIDIA and ATI put out a new card every 6 months doesn't mean everyone can keep up with buying them. Hopefully DOOM3 and HL2 will be a bit more hardware friendly.

[thedudemanguy]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Damon0306:
I would stay with my Radeon 9800 PRO 128MB, but I really need to put this card back into my Athlon system (which is still a nice little system very capable of playing lots of games)<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

An X800 would probably double your performance and give you a huge boost in AA/AF situations... this card owns FC more then anything else so it would be the card to buy...

It would be interesting to see some CPU benchies somewhere though... mine's only 1.6