FarCry2 New Hotfix vs. Old Hotfix Benchmarks
We originally reported that AMD/ATI’s hotfix drivers for FarCry2 were broken http://www.alienbabeltech.com/?p=890. Although performance with the hotfix drivers noticeably increased frame rates over the regular 8-10 Catalyst drivers, a bug appeared in certain areas that would show up as missing or transparent textures. Well, AMD’s driver team responded in record time with a brand new hotfix driver to replace their first one; beginning with a promise to do it quickly, as our follow-up article reported yesterday – then as we updated this morning at http://www.alienbabeltech.com/?p=995, a brand new hotfix download!
We decided to test the new driver out and although we are very happy to report that the DX10 visual irregularities appear to be fixed, playing with a HD4870/1GB is still very annoying – contrasted with its big brother the 4870×2, or a GTX280. Hitching is still irritating in DX10 mode even though the frame rates would otherwise appear be adequate for a smooth experience. Fortunately, this console command is very effective in smoothing the frame rates: gfx_maxfps 25
We used the same PC as we used in our first test – nothing has changed except for the new hotfix driver replacing the old one. We continue to test using FarCry2’s built-in short Ranch demo run at overall ultra settings, varying the AA settings in-game and forcing 16xAF in the control panel. We can see the performance of the new hotfix drivers sits slightly ahead of the regular Cat 8-10 but behind the first hotfix drivers. Here are our results:
We are also glad to report that the scenes with the missing and transparent textures are fixed. Both images are at 1920×1200 resolution, 4xAA/16xAF, with overall ultra settings.
The new hotfix drivers The old hotfix drivers
Our thanks go to AMD’s Catalyst Driver team for responding so quickly to our plea! We will continue to follow FarCry2 performance as patches are released for it and drivers are updated. Stay tuned.
-Mark Poppin
ABT Editor
