FarCry is a hot 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 can place 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. FarCry is an interesting benchmark, as it combines the old school performance requirements with new features such as support for SM 3.0. For this test, we are using the full retail version, and the include in-game demo.
The latest game patches enable SM 3.0 support for FarCry, and this makes it an excellent test of current feature sets and performance. The Biostar GeForce 7900 GT 256MB card once again proves to be the top performer, and ranks first in terms of FarCry performance, outpacing the GeForce 7800 GTX by a slim margin. Other than a couple of the mainstream cards, the overall performance scores are very close together, especially at 1280x1024, but the separation at 1600x1200 bodes well for higher-end anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering detail testing.
We do see the Biostar GeForce 7900 GT start breaking away from the pack once we increase the FarCry detail options to 4X AA and 8X AF. The Biostar card produces very high-end framerates in this game, and posts the top performance scores at both resolutions.
Quake 4 is the latest in 3D first-person shooters from id Software and Raven, and while the actual storyline is pretty standard fare and the game itself is based on the DOOM 3 engine, the graphics are exceptional and it is an improvement over previous games. The lighting and shadow effects are excellent, and the overall level design and architecture are a real treat. The overall load on the graphics card can be extreme, which is both a blessing and a curse, depending on the actual hardware you are testing.
Quake 4 is a game that tends to separate the men from the boys, and in this case, we see the Biostar GeForce 7900 GT well in the lead, and challenged only by the GeForce 7800 GTX. Quake 4 seems to have very little in the way of CPU limitations, and the powerful Biostar GeForce 7900 GT 256MB makes very good use of this feature.
The 4X AA and 8X AF Quake 4 benchmark scores drop across the board, but the relative scores stay very consistent to those using standard detail settings. The Biostar GeForce 7900 GT again proves to be the fastest card in our test group, and it maintains its framerate advantage over the GeForce 7800 GTX.
