Far Cry 4 Benchmarked

Call to Freedom. The Ubisoft recipe has changed little for the long-awaited sequel, Far Cry 4, as the game is composed primarily of action, exploration and foraging. We tested the performance of the Kyrat special edition on various laptops and have summarized our findings in this review.

Florian Glaser, ✓ Stefanie (translated by Vinay Pradhan), Published 11/30/2014 🇩🇪 🇷🇺

For the original German article, see here.

Game Engine

Far Cry 4 uses the modified Dunia Engine 2, which was also used in the predecessor. One of the most impressive features of engine is its enormous landscape: although there are a few blurry mountains in the horizon, most of the area is accessible whether on a quad, glider or on your feet. Thanks to this seemingly open environment, the user will be able to enjoy an astonishing degree of freedom, offered by very few other games. Other Ego shooters, like Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, feel claustrophobic in comparison. The intense colors, realistic lighting and thick vegetation provide an enchanting virtual world.

Despite all these qualities, the game is lacking in a few areas. For example, although most objects have a high level of detail, some surfaces suffer from mediocre textures. The game barely manages to reach the level of Battlefield 4 (Frostbite 3), Crysis 3 (CryEngine 3) or Ryse: Son of Rome (CryEngine 4).

Ubisoft has created a nigh perfect graphics menu: if you do not want to explore the additional options for hours, then we suggest choosing one of the 5 presets ((6 @Nvidia). The performance is often higher than in our Far Cry 3 benchmarks as not all features are set to max on "Ultra" mode (no HBAO+, SMAA instead of MSAA, ...).

Although the Ego shooter looks sparse with low details, at medium details the user can start having fun. Like most other games, the graphics become truly impressive at high details. Thankfully, a restart is not required after changing the settings, but the intro videos can not be skipped. If the user employs a SSD, the load times should be quite short.

It is evident that Far Cry 4 is produced by the same publisher as Assassin's Creed Unity, as the game is part of the Nvidia TWIMTBP program and receives very fast patches. We use the version 1.3.0 for our benchmarks. While reading this review, you might find yourself wondering why the AMD GPUs perform better than their Nvidia competitors at times (compare the R9 M290X to the otherwise often faster GTX 870M). We believe this discrepancy is due to the GPUs producing different effects in the game at high and max settings.

Furthermore, at most settings, we noticed a fault in the shadow processing with our AMD R9 M290X GPU. This problem was found in Far Cry 3 as well and was alleviated after a few updates. The Intel HD Graphics 4600 also suffers from faulty shadows but this IGP is far too weak for this game (<20 fps). Finally, despite our AMD GPU producing good fps rates, the game stuttered on many systems. We could not find a reason for this behavior.

Benchmark

We did not use any cars or planes and stayed on foot so as to ensure consistent benchmark results. We start at the idyllic yet chaotic village in which the protagonist finds himself after the tutorial mission ("Reach the Belltower"). The 50 second test, which can be seen in the video below, provides a reliable measure of the average performance. Notebooks have to achieve at least 35-40 fps in our benchmark if they are to reliably provide fluid performance in more demanding scenes.

Results

The hardware requirements may not be as extreme as those of Assassin's Creed Unity, but the game still requires strong performance. If you have entry-level hardware, you will not be able to enjoy Kyrat properly. The game lags a lot with GPUs below the GeForce GT 740M – even at a resolution of 1,024 x 768 pixels and minimum details. Normal details and a resolution of 1,366 x 768 pixels require a middle-class GPU like the GeForce GT 750M.

It becomes really hard at high settings and the FHD resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels. We recommend a GeForce GTX 870M for this level. If you choose the preset "Ultra", we would recommend either a Radeon R9 M290X or a GeForce GTX 780M/880M. The Intel CPUs are usually limited by their GPUs (a dual-core with Turbo Boost and Hyperthreading can easily provide sufficient performance).

Far Cry 4
1920x1080 Ultra Graphics Quality AA:SM 1920x1080 High Graphics Quality AA:SM 1366x768 Medium Graphics Quality 1024x768 Low Graphics Quality
Radeon R9 290X, 4790K, Intel SSD 530 Series SSDSC2BW240A Sapphire Radeon R9 290X Tri-X OC	80 (49^min) fps ∼70% 94 (55^min) fps ∼65% 115 (60^min) fps ∼67% 122 (69^min) fps ∼69%
GeForce GTX 980, 3770K Desktop-PC	77.7 (50^min) fps ∼68% 87.2 (58^min) fps ∼61% 101.4 (67^min) fps ∼59% 102.4 (71^min) fps ∼58%
Radeon R9 280X, 3770K Desktop-PC	60.4 (42^min) fps ∼53% 72 (46^min) fps ∼50% 92.9 (53^min) fps ∼54% 96.4 (60^min) fps ∼54%
Radeon R9 M290X, 4700MQ Schenker W504	41.4 (29^min) fps ∼36% 49.1 (32^min) fps ∼34% 70.7 (39^min) fps ∼41% 76.1 (44^min) fps ∼43%
GeForce GTX 880M, 4700MQ Schenker W504	40.3 (34^min) fps ∼35% 50.5 (42^min) fps ∼35% 95.9 (67^min) fps ∼56% 104.4 (75^min) fps ∼59%
GeForce GTX 780M, 4700MQ Schenker W503	36.5 (30^min) fps ∼32% 46.6 (38^min) fps ∼32% 95.7 (66^min) fps ∼56% 103.8 (73^min) fps ∼59%
GeForce GTX 870M, 4700MQ Schenker W504	32.9 (28^min) fps ∼29% 42.2 (36^min) fps ∼29% 93.4 (69^min) fps ∼55% 100.8 (69^min) fps ∼57%
GeForce GTX 770M, 4700MQ Schenker W503	25.2 (21^min) fps ∼22% 31.2 (26^min) fps ∼22% 73.1 (59^min) fps ∼43% 93.2 (68^min) fps ∼53%
GeForce GTX 860M, 4700MQ Schenker W504	23 (20^min) fps ∼20% 29.9 (23^min) fps ∼21% 74.4 (62^min) fps ∼44% 93.7 (67^min) fps ∼53%
GeForce GTX 850M, 4340M Schenker M504	21.8 (18^min) fps ∼19% 27 (22^min) fps ∼19% 60.4 (51^min) fps ∼35% 79.4 (61^min) fps ∼45%
GeForce GTX 765M, 4700MQ Schenker W503	18 (12^min) fps ∼16% 23.4 (15^min) fps ∼16% 57.9 (48^min) fps ∼34% 79.9 (65^min) fps ∼45%
GeForce GT 750M, 4702MQ Schenker M503	11.5 (8^min) fps ∼10% 14.2 (9^min) fps ∼10% 35.2 (30^min) fps ∼21% 49.4 (41^min) fps ∼28%
Iris Pro Graphics 5200, 4750HQ, Intel SSD 525 Series SSDMCEAC180B3 SCHENKER S413	8.5 (5^min) fps ∼7% 12.2 (7^min) fps ∼8% 23.6 (16^min) fps ∼14% 30.7 (19^min) fps ∼17%
Radeon R7 512 Cores (Kaveri Desktop), A10-7850K, Samsung SSD 470 Series MZ-5PA256/EU A10-7850K Asus A88-XM-PLUS	14.7 (10^min) fps ∼10% 30.8 (25^min) fps ∼18% 42.5 (33^min) fps ∼24%
GeForce GT 740M, 4200M HP Envy 15-j011sg	8.3 (7^min) fps ∼7% 10.1 (8^min) fps ∼7% 24.2 (20^min) fps ∼14% 34.3 (29^min) fps ∼19%
GeForce GT 640M, 2637M, Lite-On LMT-256M3M Acer Aspire M3-581TG	9.6 (2^min) fps ∼7% 26.9 (21^min) fps ∼16% 35.8 (27^min) fps ∼20%
GeForce GT 720M, 4200M, WDC Scorpio Blue WD10JPVX-22JC3T0 MSI CX61-i572M	7.1 (0^min) fps ∼5% 17.9 (0^min) fps ∼10% 25.7 (0^min) fps ∼15%
Radeon HD 8650G, A10-5750M, Samsung SSD 470 Series MZ-5PA256/EU Pumori Test Platform (A10-5750M)	17.7 (12^min) fps ∼10% 24.8 (16^min) fps ∼14%
HD Graphics 4600, 4700MQ Schenker W503	5.3 (2^min) fps ∼5% 7 (3^min) fps ∼5% 14.3 (9^min) fps ∼8% 19.9 (12^min) fps ∼11%
GeForce GT 630M, 3720QM, Seagate Momentus 7200.5 ST9750420AS Asus N56VM	16.3 (11^min) fps ∼10% 22.2 (16^min) fps ∼13%
HD Graphics 3000, 2637M, Lite-On LMT-256M3M Acer Aspire M3-581TG	0 (0^min) fps ∼0%

Test Systems

Four or our test models are provided by Schenker Technologies (mysn.de):

W504 (Core i7-4700MQ, 8 GB DDR3, GeForce GTX 860M, GTX 870M, GTX 880M, Radeon R9 M290X)
W503 (Core i7-4700MQ, 8 GB DDR3, GeForce GTX 765M, GTX 770M, GTX 780M)
M504 (Core i5-4340M, 8 GB DDR3, GeForce GTX 850M)
M503 (Core i7-4702MQ, 8 GB DDR3, GeForce GT 750M)

These notebooks have Windows 7 64 bit installed on them.

Other test models were provided by Nvidia:

HP Envy 15-j011sg (Core i5-4200M, 12 GB DDR3, GeForce GT 740M)
MSI CX61-i572M281BW7 (Core i5-4200M, 8 GB DDR3, GeForce GT 720M)
Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3-581TG (Core i7-2637M, 4GB DDR3, Geforce GT 640M)

Intel provided one more:

Schenker S413 (Core i7-4750HQ, 8 GB DDR3, Iris Pro Graphics 5200)

The desktop PCs use CPUs/APUs from Intel and AMD, SSDs from Micron, Intel and Samsung, mainboards from Intel and Asus and graphics cards from Nvidia and AMD.

The GPU drivers we used: Nvidia 344.75, AMD 14.11.2 Beta, Intel 10.18.10.3960.

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Editor of the original article: Florian Glaser - Managing Editor Gaming Laptops - 615 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2009

I discovered my interest in computers in my childhood, growing up with MS-DOS and Windows 3.1 in the early 1990s. I was especially fascinated with computer games, even from an early age. From Monkey Island through Lands of Lore to Doom, I tried every game I could get my hands on. I have been working for Notebookcheck since 2009 with my focus mostly being on high-performance gaming laptops.

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> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > Reviews > Archive of our own reviews > Far Cry 4 Benchmarked

Florian Glaser, 2014-11-30 (Update: 2021-05-18)

Legend
5	Stutters – This game is very likely to stutter and have poor frame rates. Based on all known benchmarks using the specified graphical settings, average frame rates are expected to fall below 25fps
	May Stutter – This graphics card has not been explicitly tested on this game. Based on interpolated information from surrounding graphics cards of similar performance levels, stutters and poor frame rates are expected.
30	Fluent – Based on all known benchmarks using the specified graphical settings, this game should run at or above 25fps
40	Fluent – Based on all known benchmarks using the specified graphical settings, this game should run at or above 35fps
60	Fluent – Based on all known benchmarks using the specified graphical settings, this game should run at or above 58fps
	May Run Fluently – This graphics card has not been explicitly tested on this game. Based on interpolated information from surrounding graphics cards of similar performance levels, fluent frame rates are expected.
?	Uncertain – This graphics card experienced unexpected performance issues during testing for this game. A slower card may be able to achieve better and more consistent frame rates than this particular GPU running the same benchmark scene.
	Uncertain – This graphics card has not been explicitly tested on this game and no reliable interpolation can be made based on the performances of surrounding cards of the same class or family.
The value in the fields displays the average frame rate of all values in the database. Move your cursor over the value to see individual results.