FarCry is a hot new first-person shooter that takes in-game graphics to the next level, although in a different direction than DOOM 3. Instead of darkness and confined spaces, FarCry places you outdoors, on bright sandy beaches, jungles or even on the water itself. This game gives our video cards a different kind of a stress test, and rest assured that FarCry ranks up there with the very toughest 3D game benchmarks. For this test, we are using the full retail version, and the include in-game demo.
As is fast becoming the standard, FarCry gives us yet another extremely tight performance race between the ASUS AX800 XT and GeForce 6800 Ultra. The AX800 XT does slide out to a very slim lead, but the differences are negligible. FarCry is definitely a high-end 3D benchmark, as evidenced by the noticeable performance gap between the ASUS AX800 XT and GeForce 6800 GT at 1600x1200, and the much lower performance of the Radeon 9800XT and GeForce FX 5950 Ultra cards.
Once we bring FarCry detail settings to 4X AA and 8X AF, we start to see the ASUS AX800 XT drop back and the GeForce 6800-based cards take charge. This is similar to the DOOM 3 performance graphs, and it is a bit surprising to see the AX800 XT drop back, after posting impressive scores in the previous chart.
AquaMark is a relatively new DirectX 9 benchmark, and although it does not represent an actual game, it does use the same Krass engine as found in products such as Aquanox 2 and Spellforce. AquaMark 3 also supports new features such as Hyper-Threading, Pixel Shader and Vertex Shader 2.0, and uses a wide range of DirectX 9 effects and features. For this review, we've tested in licensed 1280x1024 and 1600x1200 Advanced (FPS) modes.
The AquaMark 3 results show that it is a very demanding DirectX 9 benchmark, although we're back to the ASUS AX800 XT and GeForce 6800 Ultra fighting it out for the top spot. Neither card comes away the victor, and again we see a noticeable drop-off at the GeForce 6800 Ultra level, and another dip when we hit the Radeon 980XT and GeForce FX 5950 Ultra.
Once the higher detail 4X anti-aliasing and 8X anisotropic filtering is brought into play, the ASUS AX800 XT proves itself the fastest in AquaMark 3. This is especially noticeable at 1600x1200, where the ATI-based powerhouse speeds out to a significant relative performance lead.
