News Nvidia launches GeForce 310.64 Beta for Far Cry 3

[Gareth Halfacree]

Beta driver boosts performance by up to 38%.
http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardwar...vidia-310-64/1

[GeorgeK]

Not a shoddy performance boost but from what I can tell the Far Cry 3 bump is the only difference between this and the previous 310.61 beta drivers - I'll stick with those unless I find the cash to get FC3...

[phinix]

Wait, so GTX670 will only pull around 25fps in FarCry3 in 1920x?

[Griffter]

cool!

[GeorgeK]

Originally Posted by phinix

Wait, so GTX670 will only pull around 25fps in FarCry3 in 1920x?

To quote Nvidia's website

Using the most popular gaming resolution, 1920x1080, we maxed out Far Cry 3's many graphics options, selected SSAO Ambient Occlusion (an excellent balance between performance and fidelity), set the game's version of Transparency Supersampling to "Standard", and enabled 8xMSAA to eliminate those pesky jaggies. As you can see below, today's 310.64 beta driver boosted performance significantly, helping the GTX 670 and GTX 680 achieve playable frame rates at this demanding detail level. Please note that we expect improvements of varying degrees to be seen on any system utilizing a GeForce GTX 400, 500, or 600 series GPU, but due to time constraints we were unable to run comprehensive, in-depth tests ahead of the driver's release

They've obviously cranked the eye-candy right up, but that's a good spot - even with the new drivers they weren't hitting 40fps with a 670 or a 680

[Shirty]

So this is basically essential if you have the game on an Nvidia system.

[Xtheblackfox]

Its bizar how low the fps in this game is :s I was confident my 7950 would own it. Dam console porting

[GeorgeK]

It should run ok with some of the settings turned down - I'd be interested to see how AMD cards fared with the settings cranked up

[rollo]

8x mxaa is the problem straight away

reduce it to 4 and you would see 60 fps np.

[runadumb]

Originally Posted by Xtheblackfox

Its bizar how low the fps in this game is :s I was confident my 7950 would own it. Dam console porting

Console porting or does the game just look F'king awesome? Genuine question, haven't played it. The console version may be the equivalent of low settings.

[The Infamous Mr D]

Is this actually a boost? Or a really urgent driver fix dressed up and spun to look like Nvidia are awesome and can magic performance out of its bum?

[Shirty]

I think most driver optimisations are "clean" nowadays. Both the green and red teams have learned from history that subtly reducing image quality to eke out extra performance will always be an own goal.

[Saivert]

This better fix graphics corruption in Battlefield 3 which is evident in their current WHQL driver (306.97).
Like yellow color on the ground in certain places.

Also I get ~60fps@1920x1080 with Ultra and no MSAA in Battlefield 3 with my GeForce GTX 560Ti.
This card just doesn't like AA much at higher resolutions.

[Shirty]

That's just urine from your cowering foes...

[grimerking]

I got Far Cry 3 bundled with my ATI 7850. Are you now telling me that it won't even play it on max?

What is the point in that?

[BlueFalcon]

grimerking,

HD7850 wouldn't be able to max out Hitman Absolution, Sleeping Dogs or Far Cry 3. Would you rather get a free ugly looking console port like Black Ops 2 as opposed to a good game with great graphics? I'd rather take Far Cry 3 and have to tone down settings on a 7850 than get a free Assassin's Creed 3 and then be stunned how a game that ugly can run so bad with MSAA.

The more frightening development is that all these new games barely look better than Crysis Warhead from 4 years ago but perform much worse. It seems the next level of graphics will require 5-10x the GPU power we have today as GTX680/HD7970Ghz are already not enough for 60 fps in the latest games at 1080P. None of these games are even true next gen DX11 games...ouch. I have a feeling Crysis 3 and Metro Last Light will make current high-end cards look like toys.

[ssj12]

Originally Posted by grimerking

I got Far Cry 3 bundled with my ATI 7850. Are you now telling me that it won't even play it on max?

What is the point in that?

They want you to crossfire/SLi to max it? Who knows?

[rollo]

Alot of games are sold bundled with graphics cards that they will never have a hope of maxing once you go above 720p resolution.

Borderlands 2 was recently given away with most Nvidia cards but if you crank the settings up to max you will be below 30fps on anything below the 660ti.

Far cry 3 is part of AMDs game bundle among other games. Across there entire range you get a game free at the minute 7850 7870 just get far cry 3 but most of the bigger ones are getting 2-3 games.

Remember

8x MxAA is far from normal 4x MxAA is alot closer and you might double your FPS setting it to that level.

If you expected to set 8x MxAA on a 7850 your in dreamworld. or SSAO for that matter both suck performance from cards. Just cause 2 can go from a flawless 100+fps to below 30fps if you enable SSAO and mxaa to high levels on most cards out there at the moment ( 7970 670 and above excluded)

SSAO and MxAA are best avoided on anything but the high end cards running in sli or crossfire.

[damien c]

Well I bought a copy of Far Cry 3 and although it isn't officially released apparently in the UK till today, I was able to play it yesterday.

Have to say the graphics are good, but there is a few issues with the game for me.

Single Player I can pull over 100fps, with these new drivers from Nvidia on my GTX 680 and all the settings cranked up to the max including the AA, but as soon as I go on Multiplayer that drops to 30fps and the game feels awful to play.

It's using the stupid P2P hosting system, so you get the "Host Migration" when you are in the middle of match and the host quits because they are getting owned, you get clunky game play and massive amounts of LAG.

I also have to bind all my keys everytime I want to play the game, and there is no option for the Aim Down Sight Toggle so that you are either ads or not, instead you have to hold the button down on your mouse the whole time.

This for me is a failure of a game at the moment, because of the issues with the low fps on multiplayer, the constant need to bind the keys and a few other things.

Look's like I will only be playing the single player side of the game and will leave the multiplayer alone till they fix it, and unless you want to only play the campaign side of the game then I suggest you avoid it for now as at the moment, I don't think it's worth paying for.

[Apocalypso]

Hmm, the new drivers and the rig below gets me around 20-25fps and settings at Ultra. However the actual gameplay is very smooth, it's strange almost like Afterburner isn't reporting correctly.