Far Cry is a game based on the new Shader 3.0 (DirectX 9.0c) programming model available on series 6 and 7 from nVidia and series X1000 from ATI graphics chips. We’ve updated the game to version 1.3.
 
As we’ve done on other programs, we ran this game at three resolutions, 1024x768x32, 1280x1024x32 and 1600x1200x32. This game allows several image quality levels and we’ve done our benchmarking on two levels, low and very high. To measure the performance we used the demo created by German magazine PC Games Hardware (PCGH), available at http://www.3dcenter.org/downloads/farcry-pcgh-vga.php. We run this demo four times and made an arithmetical average with the results. This average is the result presented in our graphs.

This game has a very important detail in its image quality configuration. Antialiasing, instead of being configured by numbers (1x, 2x, 4x or 6x) is configured as low, medium or high. The problem is that on nVidia chips both medium and high mean 4x, while on ATI chips medium means 2x and high means 6x, making the comparison between ATI and nVidia chips completely unfair. Because of that we configured antialising at 4x and anisotropic filtering at 8x manually at the video driver control panel.

For further details on how to measure 3D performance with Far Cry, read our tutorial on this subject.

At a resolution of 1024x768 without any image quality enhancement, XFX GeForce 6600 256 MB (which is factory-overclocked) was 6.46% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 9.14% faster than NVidia GeForce 6800 GT and 16.94% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro. Keep in mind that XFX GeForce 6600 256 MB was running at 400 MHz (core) and 800 MHz (memory), while its rival, Albatron GeForce 6600, was running at 300 MHz (core) and 500 MHz (memory).

XFX GeForce 6600 256 MB (which is factory-overclocked) achieved a performance similar to NVidia GeForce 7800 GT, NVidia GeForce 6800 GS, ATI Radeon X600 XT and XFX GeForce 6600 GT.

XFX GeForce 6600 256 MB (which is factory-overclocked) was beaten by HIS Radeon X800 GT, which was 10.62% faster, ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., which was 10.59% faster, HIS Radeon X800 GTO, which was 10.52% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 10.32% faster, HIS Radeon X1600 XT, which was 10.26% faster, Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, which was 10.15% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 9.85% faster, ATI Radeon X1600 XT, which was 9.77% faster, ATI Radeon X1900 XTX, which was 9.45% faster and MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 3.88% faster.

At a resolution of 1280x1024 without any image quality enhancement, XFX GeForce 6600 256 MB (which is factory-overclocked) was 32.13% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT, 34.13% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600 and 61.47% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro. Keep in mind that XFX GeForce 6600 256 MB was running at 400 MHz (core) and 800 MHz (memory), while its rival, Albatron GeForce 6600, was running at 300 MHz (core) and 500 MHz (memory).

XFX GeForce 6600 256 MB (which is factory-overclocked) was beaten by ATI Raden X850 XT P.E., which was 21.54% faster, HIS Radeon X800 GT, which was 21.36% faster, HIS Radeon X800 GTO, which was 20.88% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 20.30% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 19.44% faster, ATI Radeon X1600 XT, which was 19.25% faster, HIS Radeon X1600 XT, which was 18.96% faster, Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, which was 17.50% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 13.12% faster, NVidia GeForce 6800 GS, which was 12.49% faster, NVidia GeForce 7800 GT, which was 11.86% faster, ATI Radeon X1900 XTX, which was 11.22% faster, NVidia GeForce 6800 GT, which was 8.40% faster and XFX GeForce 6600 GT, which was 8.00% faster.

ATI Radeon X1900 XTX was beaten by ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., which was 9.28% faster, HIS Radeon X800 GT, which was 9.12% faster, HIS Radeon X800 GTO, which was 8.69% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 8.17% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 7.39% faster, ATI Radeon X1600 XT, which was 7.22% faster, HIS Radeon X1600 XT, which was 6.96% faster and Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, which was 5.65% faster.

At a resolution of 1600x1200 without any image quality enhancement, XFX GeForce 6600 256 MB (which is factory-overclocked) was 40.46% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 48.80% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT and 82.21% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro. Keep in mind that XFX GeForce 6600 256 MB was running at 400 MHz (core) and 800 MHz (memory), while its rival, Albatron GeForce 6600, was running at 300 MHz (core) and 500 MHz (memory).

XFX GeForce 6600 256 MB (which is factory-overclocked) was beaten by ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., which was 61.32% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 59.87% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 59.33% faster, HIS Radeon X800 GTO, which was 56.49% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 50.47% faster, NVidia GeForce 7800 GT, which was 49.62% faster, NVidia GeForce 6800 GS, which was 48.63% faster, ATI Radeon X1900 XTX, which was 47.01% faster, HIS Radeon X800 GT, which was 44.16% faster, NVidia GeForce 6800 GT, which was 43.40% faster, ATI Radeon X1600 XT, which was 35.95% faster, HIS Radeon X1600 XT, which was 33.00% faster, XFX GeForce 6600 GT, which was 22.80% faster and Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, which was 18.21% faster.

At a resolution of 1024x768 enabling image quality enhancements, XFX GeForce 6600 256 MB (which is factory-overclocked) was 57.03% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 82.12% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro and 98.35% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT. Keep in mind that XFX GeForce 6600 256 MB was running at 400 MHz (core) and 800 MHz (memory), while its rival, Albatron GeForce 6600, was running at 300 MHz (core) and 500 MHz (memory).

XFX GeForce 6600 256 MB (which is factory-overclocked) achieved a performance similar to XFX GeForce 6600 GT.

XFX GeForce 6600 256 MB (which is factory-overclocked) was beaten by ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., which was 106.11% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 105.95% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 104.95% faster, NVidia GeForce 7800 GT, which was 103.98% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 102.80% faster, NVidia GeForce 6800 GS, which was 90.26% faster, ATI Radeon X1900 XTX, which was 86.71% faster, NVidia GeForce 6800 GT, which was 82.75% faster, HIS Radeon X800 GTO, which was 69.63% faster, HIS Radeon X800 GT, which was 47.48% faster, ATI Radeon X1600 XT, which was 28.89% faster, HIS Radeon X1600 XT, which was 26.58% faster and Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, which was 9.55% faster.

At a resolution of 1280x1024 enabling image quality enhancements, XFX GeForce 6600 256 MB (which is factory-overclocked) was 64.03% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 74.70% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro and 81.50% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT. Keep in mind that XFX GeForce 6600 256 MB was running at 400 MHz (core) and 800 MHz (memory), while its rival, Albatron GeForce 6600, was running at 300 MHz (core) and 500 MHz (memory).

XFX GeForce 6600 256 MB (which is factory-overclocked) was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 204.53% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 187.74% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 183.17% faster, ATI Radeon X1900 XTX, which was 177.47% faster, ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., which was 174.80% faster, NVidia GeForce 7800 GT, which was 171.40% faster, NVidia GeForce 6800 GS, which was 117.68% faster, NVidia GeForce 6800 GT, which was 108.45% faster, HIS Radeon X800 GTO, which was 85.28% faster, HIS Radeon X800 GT, which was 55.46% faster, ATI Radeon X1600 XT, which was 43.97% faster, HIS Radeon X1600 XT, which was 37.18% faster, Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, which was 14.08% faster and XFX GeForce 6600 GT, which was 4.45% faster..

At a resolution of 1600x1200 enabling image quality enhancements, XFX GeForce 6600 256 MB (which is factory-overclocked) was 52.84% faster than Albatron GeForce 6600, 114.43% faster than Sapphire Radeon X600 Pro and 145.93% faster than ATI Radeon X600 XT. Keep in mind that XFX GeForce 6600 256 MB was running at 400 MHz (core) and 800 MHz (memory), while its rival, Albatron GeForce 6600, was running at 300 MHz (core) and 500 MHz (memory).

XFX GeForce 6600 256 MB (which is factory-overclocked) was beaten by ATI Radeon X1800 XT, which was 316.94% faster, ATI Radeon X1900 XTX, which was 298.03% faster, ATI Radeon X1800 XL, which was 244.32% faster, MSI GeForce 7800 GTX, which was 237.01% faster, ATI Radeon X850 XT P.E., which was 214.56% faster, NVidia GeForce 7800 GT, which was 203.65% faster, NVidia GeForce 6800 GS, which was 131.61% faster, NVidia GeForce 6800 GT, which was 98.90% faster, HIS Radeon X800 GTO, which was 97.56% faster, HIS Radeon X800 GT, which was 60.90% faster, ATI Radeon X1600 XT, which was 42.17% faster, HIS Radeon X1600 XT, which was 39.33% faster, Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro, which was 16.07% faster and XFX GeForce 6600 GT, which was 13.28% faster.