Far Cry is a heavy game based on the Shader 3.0 (DirectX 9.0c) programming model. We’ve updated the game to version 1.4. To measure the performance we run four times the demo created by German magazine PC Games Hardware (PCGH) and the results presented below are an arithmetic average of the collected data. We used the HardwareOC Far Cry Benchmark 1.7 utility to help us collecting data.

Since we are comparing mid-range cards, we decided to run this program in two resolutions, 1024x768 (simulating a low resolution) and 1600x1200 (simulating a high resolution). At each resolution we simulated two scenarios, first with no image quality enhancements enabled and graphics details set to “maximum” (this scenario we called “low”) and then with anti-aliasing set at 4x, anisotropic filtering set at 16x and graphics details set to “ultra” (this scenario we called “high”). On all scenarios we set the rendering engine to Shader 3.0. The results, given in frames per second, you check below. All video cards listed below were running with the default clock rates defined by the chip manufacturer except the cards marked with “OC”, which are cards that are factory-overclocked.

Far Cry 1.4 - 1024x768 - Maximum Details	Score	Difference
GeForce 8600 GTS 256 MB (MSI)	141.84	46.44%
GeForce 7600 GT 256 MB (XFX)	131.39	35.65%
Radeon X1650 XT 256 MB (HIS) OC	130.21	34.43%
Radeon X1650 XT 256 MB (HIS)	128.86	33.04%
GeForce 8600 GT 256 MB (MSI)	118.14	21.97%
Radeon X1650 Pro 256 MB (HIS)	97.75	0.92%
Radeon X1300 XT 256 MB GDDR3 (HIS) OC	96.86
GeForce 7600 GS 256 MB (XFX)	89.96	7.67%
GeForce 6600 GT 128 MB (nVidia)	85.77	12.93%
Radeon X1300 XT 256 MB GDDR3 (HIS)	81.60	18.70%
GeForce 7300 GT 256 MB (Zogis)	67.03	44.50%
GeForce 8500 GT 256 MB (MSI)	60.84	59.20%
GeForce 6600 128 MB (Albatron)	50.01	93.68%
GeForce 6200 128-bit 128 MB (Leadtek)	34.90	177.54%

Far Cry 1.4 - 1600x1200 - Maximum Details	Score	Difference
GeForce 8600 GTS 256 MB (MSI)	78.86	62.00%
Radeon X1650 XT 256 MB (HIS) OC	77.92	60.07%
GeForce 7600 GT 256 MB (XFX)	75.56	55.22%
Radeon X1650 XT 256 MB (HIS)	71.84	47.58%
GeForce 8600 GT 256 MB (MSI)	61.09	25.49%
Radeon X1650 Pro 256 MB (HIS)	49.39	1.46%
Radeon X1300 XT 256 MB GDDR3 (HIS) OC	48.68
GeForce 7600 GS 256 MB (XFX)	46.17	5.44%
GeForce 6600 GT 128 MB (nVidia)	45.07	8.01%
Radeon X1300 XT 256 MB GDDR3 (HIS)	40.88	19.08%
GeForce 7300 GT 256 MB (Zogis)	34.52	41.02%
GeForce 8500 GT 256 MB (MSI)	30.56	59.29%
GeForce 6600 128 MB (Albatron)	25.62	90.01%
GeForce 6200 128-bit 128 MB (Leadtek)	17.65	175.81%

Far Cry 1.4 - 1024x768 - AAx4. AFx16. Ultra Details	Score	Difference
GeForce 8600 GTS 256 MB (MSI)	98.33	102.74%
Radeon X1650 XT 256 MB (HIS) OC	81.34	67.71%
GeForce 8600 GT 256 MB (MSI)	79.72	64.37%
GeForce 7600 GT 256 MB (XFX)	77.96	60.74%
Radeon X1650 XT 256 MB (HIS)	74.08	52.74%
GeForce 7600 GS 256 MB (XFX)	49.96	3.01%
Radeon X1650 Pro 256 MB (HIS)	48.93	0.89%
Radeon X1300 XT 256 MB GDDR3 (HIS) OC	48.50
GeForce 6600 GT 128 MB (nVidia)	45.34	6.97%
GeForce 7300 GT 256 MB (Zogis)	44.59	8.77%
GeForce 8500 GT 256 MB (MSI)	41.31	17.40%
Radeon X1300 XT 256 MB GDDR3 (HIS)	40.86	18.70%
GeForce 6600 128 MB (Albatron)	24.88	94.94%
GeForce 6200 128-bit 128 MB (Leadtek)	17.97	169.89%

Far Cry 1.4 - 1600x1200 - AAx4. AFx16. Ultra Details	Score	Difference
GeForce 8600 GTS 256 MB (MSI)	46.71	87.67%
Radeon X1650 XT 256 MB (HIS) OC	46.52	86.90%
Radeon X1650 XT 256 MB (HIS)	42.10	69.14%
GeForce 7600 GT 256 MB (XFX)	38.49	54.64%
GeForce 8600 GT 256 MB (MSI)	38.33	54.00%
Radeon X1300 XT 256 MB GDDR3 (HIS) OC	24.89
Radeon X1650 Pro 256 MB (HIS)	24.81	0.32%
GeForce 7300 GT 256 MB (Zogis)	21.23	17.24%
GeForce 7600 GS 256 MB (XFX)	21.13	17.79%
GeForce 6600 GT 128 MB (nVidia)	21.04	18.30%
Radeon X1300 XT 256 MB GDDR3 (HIS)	20.53	21.24%
GeForce 8500 GT 256 MB (MSI)	18.78	32.53%
GeForce 6600 128 MB (Albatron)	11.44	117.57%
GeForce 6200 128-bit 128 MB (Leadtek)	8.47	193.86%