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Far Cry 4 PC performance thread

JaseC

gave away the keys to the kingdom.

(Click for general game info.)

System requirements:
farcry4sysreqshhpdt.jpg


Latest drivers: (as at 21/12/2017)
Nvidia: 388.71
AMD: 17.12.2
Intel: Depends on your processor; download the driver update utility

Tips and tricks:
Benchmarks (NV), settings comparisons, and recommended settings (NV): See Nvidia's tweak guide. (Credit to AndyBNV.)
Various CPU/GPU benchmarks and data: See this GameGPU article.
Note: The article is in Russian, but the data is presented via graphs.
Cap the framerate/potentially improve frametimes: Download RivaTuner Statistics Server, input your desired framerate limit in the "Framerate limit" box, and hit enter (the program comes bundled with MSI Afterburner and earlier versions of EVGA PrecisionX). Alternatively, those with an Nvidia GPU have the option of Nvidia Inspector, which can also be used to impose a framerate cap, either in a similar manner to RTSS or by way of forcing a different vsync interval (click the small tool icon to open the game profile section).
Note: Useful if you your system can't maintain, say, 60fps and you're sensitive to the wild fluctuations, or you're experiencing uneven frametimes. The greater window the engine has to render a given frame, if you're imposing a lower framerate than the game can otherwise provide, may also help in alleviating stuttering related to data streaming.
Stop the game from crashing after 15 minutes on touch-capable systems running Windows 10: Open the task manager, switch to the Services tab and disable TabletInputService.
Actually disable mouse acceleration/smoothing: Open My Documents\My Games\Far Cry 4\[account id string]\GamerProfile.xml and set MouseAccelerationOn, MouseAcceleration, Smoothness, Smoothness_Ironsight and UseMouseSmooth to 0. (Credit to jacksepticeye.) If you're still finding mouse movements to be a little off, follow this guide. (Credit to Cr1N @ Reddit via zXe.)
Mitigate stuttering (1): Open My Documents\My Games\Far Cry 4\[account id string]\GamerProfile.xml and set DisableLoadingMip0 to 1. (Credit to Gormenghast.)
Note: Affects the quality of some textures.
Mitigate stuttering (2): Open My Documents\My Games\Far Cry 4\[account id string]\GamerProfile.xml and set GPUMaxBufferedFrames to a higher value (1-3). (Credit to pixel monkey.)
Note: Will slightly increase VRAM usage.
Mitigate stuttering (3): Unpark all of your processor's cores as Windows may be erroneously leaving some in a reserved state. (Credit to ChristianTaliban.)
Note: Not applicable if you're running Win8 or higher.
Skip intro videos: Create a shortcut to the game's executable and add -skipintro to the target line. (Credit to Unain.)
Note (1): If you're playing the game through Steam (including via a non-Steam shortcut), you can instead add the parameter using the client itself by right-clicking the game, selecting "Properties" and then "Set launch properties".
Note (2): As of v1.4, the command no longer works with the Uplay version of the game. The Steam version remains unaffected.
(For those with SLI) Remove temporal image retention when using SMAA: Using Nvidia Inspector, replace the default Far Cry 4 SLI (DX1x) bits with those of Far Cry: Blood Dragon. (Credit to riflen.)
Note: If you're unfamiliar with Nvidia Inspector, here is a step-by-step guide.
Force anisotropic filtering: Using Nvidia Inspector, click the tool icon to open the driver profile section, navigate to the game's profile and change Anisotropic filtering mode to "User defined / off" and Anisotropic filtering setting to your desired level.
Note: AF is virtually "free" on modern GPUs, so in all likelihood you'll be able to use 16x without a noticeable impact on performance.

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Graphics settings:

Graphics quality (presets): Low; Medium; High; Very High; Ultra; Nvidia (Ultra + soft shadows)

Motion blur: Off/On
Textures: Low; Medium; High; Very High; Ultra
Shadows: Low; Medium; High; Very High; Ultra; Soft shadows
Post FX: Low; Medium; High; Ultra
Geometry: Low; High; Very High; Ultra
Vegetation: Low; Medium; High; Ultra
Terrain: Low; Medium; High; Ultra
Water: Low; Medium; High; Very High; Ultra
Environment: Low; High; Ultra
Ambient occlusion: Off; SSAO; SSBC; HBAO+
Anti-aliasing: Off; 2x MSAA; 4x MSAA; 8x MSAA; SMAA; 2x TXAA; 4x TXAA


Godrays: Off; Volumetric fog; Enhanced
Fur: Off/On
Tree relief (tree tessellation): Off/On
 

banjoted

Member
Am more fussed about getting the sodding Uplay pre-load working then benchmarking it right now! Seems like a lot of us who didn't buy through either Steam, Amazon or Uplay direct can't get the game to start downloading :-/
 

Vuze

Member
Any impressions of legal owners of the game so far? If the feedback that those-who-mustn't-be-named have given is anything to go by, the performance should be pretty good!
 

garath

Member
Even though I'm playing dragon age with my gaming time over the next few weeks instead of far cry, I'll definitely be benchmarking it a little bit.

Going to try NVIDIA setting off the bat just for the fun of it Lol. I do not expect that to stick though. I'm figuring on high for my system.

i5 2500k @ 4.2
8 gigs RAM
Evga FTW 970
Win 7 64 (since I'm curious if there is a win 8.1 difference)
 

seph1roth

Member
Intel i7 4770K

GTX 970 Gaming G1

Every option set to ULTRA, Very High Shadows, Godrays, HBAO+, SMAA

60FPS almost all the time (at the beggining with all the explosions and all the shit, drops to 55fps at the most)...sluttering at some points, i think that's because of checkpoints.
 
There's no SLI profile yet. According to post on geforce forums, using Far Cry 3 SLI bits results in negative performance scaling and produces artifacts in this game.

I'd seen some supposed release day patch notes that state they fix multi GPU performance. So I assume something is coming from either Ubi or Nvidia.


Can AndyBNV comment?
 

twisted89

Member
Intel i7 4770K

GTX 970 Gaming G1

Every option set to ULTRA, Very High Shadows, Godrays, HBAO+, SMAA

60FPS almost all the time (at the beggining with all the explosions and all the shit, drops to 55fps at the most)...sluttering at some points, i think that's because of checkpoints.

No idea how you're playing with HBAO, if I set it to anything but SSAO every shadow is literally pitch black and contrast/brightness have no effect.
 
Will be very curious to see how this thread goes. Canceled my order before but if the port is solid I might snag a copy this week.
 

Qassim

Member
AndyBNV (I assume you'll read this thread), are you planning on a geforce.com graphics and performance guide for this title?
 

The Cowboy

Member
What I'm interested in is, can you get the game looking like Far Cry 3 maxed out, with the same performance/hardware as you would need to do it on FC3.

Its the vram that is making me feel iffy, i am betting even lower textures will use up more vram in FC4 than maxed out textures in FC3 (FC3 maxed out needs around 1000/1200mb) due to how the new systems unified ram is ported over to PC.
 

jaju123

Banned
For AMD Xfire users, AFR friendly profile roughly doubled my FPS but introduced flickering on skybox and some distant terrain. There is no inherent FC4 profile yet :(
 

seph1roth

Member
No idea how you're playing with HBAO, if I set it to anything but SSAO every shadow is literally pitch black and contrast/brightness have no effect.

It's not the first time i read that, probably you're right, i don't have so much idea about this technical things so i'm not a good example to prove that.

I have some pictures, you want to see them?
 
Nice OP! Also, very happy to see that the game has a wide range of graphics settings, it bodes well for the game's performance. Also, lol at the "Nvidia" setting!
 

garath

Member
Intel i7 4770K

GTX 970 Gaming G1

Every option set to ULTRA, Very High Shadows, Godrays, HBAO+, SMAA

60FPS almost all the time (at the beggining with all the explosions and all the shit, drops to 55fps at the most)...sluttering at some points, i think that's because of checkpoints.

Wow. That's great performance.
 

xAlias

Member
Intel i7 4770K

GTX 970 Gaming G1

Every option set to ULTRA, Very High Shadows, Godrays, HBAO+, SMAA

60FPS almost all the time (at the beggining with all the explosions and all the shit, drops to 55fps at the most)...sluttering at some points, i think that's because of checkpoints.

What resolution is that fps at?
 

TeaFan

Member
i7 4770k and gtx 770 2gb at 1080. Pretty much everything high but it does stutter a bit. Turning the textures to medium seems to smooth it out.
 

LilJoka

Member
i7 3770@4.2Ghz, MSI GTX 970 Gamer 1500Mhz/3900Mhz, maximum settings SMAA, HBAO+ 1080p
60fps locked, sometimes dips to 45/50fps, as if its loading new parts of the map. GPU usage below 100% at these dips. Havent updated nVidia drivers yet.

2.7GB VRAM Usage.
 
AndyBNV (I assume you'll read this thread), are you planning on a geforce.com graphics and performance guide for this title?

They said this at the end of their performance guide for AC: Unity.

"Be sure to tell us of your experiences in Paris, and stay tuned to GeForce.com for our Far Cry 4 game guide, which may be the longest graphics guide in history."
 
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