Far Cry 4 Game Performance Review
If you were a fan of Far Cry 3’s free roam, hunting and countless side missions, the sequel will be right up your alley. We test a wide array of hardware with this game, and get a good look at how it improves upon its predecessor.
Image Quality, Settings, And Test Setup
To the casual eye, Far Cry 4 looks like Far Cry 3. That's not a big surprise, since both are powered by the Dunia Engine 2. The landscape is noticeably different, though. Kyrat is no tropical jungle. It's a large, mountainous land with canyons, lakes and waterfalls. I can't think of a more expansive, beautiful game setting. It can be breathtaking.
The animation above shows what you can expect from the various quality presets. Even low detail offers an attractive environment you can lose yourself in. With the ultra setting enabled, though, it's a sublime experience.
For our custom benchmark, we found a spot that's not only repeatable, but also demanding enough to really press the hardware. Vegetation and environmental effects seem to be the primary factor in dictating frame rate. A few animals or a small shootout won't have any meaningful impact. A 30-second run through the forest from inside an outpost is where we chose to test.
Test System And Hardware
As always, we strive to represent results across a wide range of graphics hardware. We tested every modern card we could get our hands on, from the Radeon HD 6450 to the new GeForce GTX 980 and dual-GPU Radeon R9 295X2. We even tried testing GeForce GTX 970 and 980 cards in SLI. However, our samples aren't identical models, and SLI wasn't cooperative when we used different third-party solutions in tandem.
We tested the game at low, medium and ultra detail levels across a number of resolutions from 1280x720 (720p) to 3840x2160 (Ultra HD). The 4K resolution is equivalent to four 1080p monitors. Despite that massive number of pixels, 4K monitors are becoming more popular every day thanks to sub-$600 options like Asus' PB298Q:
Unlike older models that require splitting a single video stream into two HDMI inputs, this 28" display is capable of 3840x2160 video at 60Hz over a single DisplayPort 1.2 cable. You can read more about the screen in Asus PB287Q 28-Inch 4K Monitor Review: Ultra HD For $650.
Header Cell - Column 0 | Test System |
---|---|
CPU | Intel Core i5-4690K (Haswell): 3.5GHz (3.9GHz max. Turbo Boost), 6MB Shared L3 Cache |
Motherboard | ASRock Fatal1ty Z97 Killer, LGA 1150, Intel Z97 Express |
Networking | On-Board Gigabit LAN controller |
Memory | 8GB G.Skill Trident (2 x 4GB) F3-2400C10D-8GTD, 1600MT/s, CAS 11-11-11-28 1T |
Graphics | GeForce GT 730 512MB GDDR5GeForce GTX 650 2GB GDDR5GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB GDDR5GeForce GTX 660 2GB GDDR5GeForce GTX 760 2GB GDDR5GeForce GTX 970 4GB GDDR5GeForce GTX 980 4GB GDDR5Radeon HD 6450 512MB GDDR5Radeon R7 240 1GB DDR3Radeon R7 250X 1GB GDDR5Radeon R7 260X 1GB GDDR5Radeon R9 270 2GB GDDR5Radeon R9 285 3GB GDDR5Radeon R9 290X 4GB GDDR5Radeon R9 290X 8GB GDDR5Radeon R9 295X2 8GB GDDR5 |
SSD | Adata Premier Pro SP920 128GB SATA 6Gb/s SSD |
Power | In Win GreenMe 650W 80 PLUS Bronze PSU |
Software and Drivers | |
Operating System | Microsoft Windows 8 Pro x64 |
DirectX | DirectX 11 |
Graphics Drivers | AMD Catalyst 14.9 Omega, Nvidia GeForce 344.75 WHQL |
Benchmarks | |
---|---|
Far Cry 4 | Custom Tom's Hardware Benchmark, 30-second Fraps run |
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Ellis_D 14935116 said:How much AA was used and what kind? None?
I'm assuming none since with my GTX 970 and i7 4790k, I was regularly bottoming out into the low-40s/upper-30s with SMAA enabled. -
johnnyb105 Kinda wondering why are they using a fx4170 and a 6300 WHEN THERE IS A FX 4350 AND 6350 CPU AND WHERE THE HECK IS THE 8350 AT???Reply -
stoned_ritual I have a gtx780 reference and an i5 4670k, I get BETTER framrates with SMAA enabled at 1080p than with 2xMSAA or the game-suggested level of 2xTXAA. I play this game on ultra. I do get fps drops in highly vegetated areas. The biggest performance gain is seen when I disable god rays.Reply -
Onus Hmmm, I got this game free with a 500GB Samsung 840 EVO. It will be the first shooter I've tried in years. I'm thinking my i5-3570K and HD7970 ought to manage "very high" reasonably well.Reply
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magic couch The AMD drivers used were the 14.9 Omega drivers, but the omega drivers are 14.12, not 14.9. Is it supposed to say 14.12 or were the 14.9 drivers used?Reply -
airborn824 I am so BIASED. sigh what is this world coming to when we can trust nothing and no one for good info. I wanna see FX8350 with 290x with updated drivers and i5 4690 with GTX 9802 newest drivers so all of us can compare somewhat lolReply -
Cryio @ Johnny: FX 4170 for old gen high clocked quad.Reply
6300, 6350, same thing mostly.
You can OC an 8350 to that level of performance, so you can approximate. -
airborn824 THis game was so badly made. Why would there be such a difference in the CPU FPS? Sigh and very suprised such low FPS on the 295x2 which is the best money can buy these days. Very badly made game, glad i got it for FREE i would never buy it at its point now.Reply