nV News - MSI NX8800GTX Review and Mixed-Vendor SLI - Page 4 of 9
Review By Mike Chambers - January 23, 2007
FAR CRY PERFORMANCE
Far Cry continues to remain a useful benchmark as the Regulator level contains a generous amount of partially transparent textures.
Far Cry
Click Image to Enlarge - 2560x1600 - 16xQ CSAA
To combat aliasing artifacts originating from these objects, which typically include chain link fences. leaves, and foliage, the MSI NX8800GTX features supersampling (SSTAA) and multisampling transparency antialiasing (MSTAA).
Far Cry Settings
The following JavaScript applet demonstrates the effectiveness of SSTAA. Pay close attention to the objects that are marked by the yellow arrows as you cycle through the various selections. You may notice that traditional methods of MSAA are ineffective against objects that contain transparent textures.
Image quality improves when SSTAA is combined with MSAA or CSAA. Note that the full-size screenshot that appears when clicking on the thumbnail at the top of the page was taken with 16xQ CSAA and SSTAA with the mixed-vendor SLI configuration.
PERFORMANCE AT 1920x1200
If we were to define "playable" as a result that contains a minimum frame rate of at least 30 frames per second (fps), then 6 out of the 7 settings would qualify with the MSI NX8800GTX running in a single GPU configuration.
Average Frame Rate - 1920x1200
Minimum Frame Rate - 1920x1200
PERFORMANCE AT 2560x1600
At a resolution of 2560x1600, the single MSI NX8800GTX achieves a "playable" setting with no AA, 4x AA, and HDR. With a minimum frame rate of 27fps, it falls short by a mere 3fps at 8x CSAA and 16x CSAA. Although less effective at higher levels of antialiasing, the single MSI NX8800GTX delivers an impressive minimum frame rate of 24fps with 16x CSAA combined with SSTAA.
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