HardOCP Max Payne 3 performance review

RanxZy · 5 Jun 2012 at 13:37

gregster said:
Did you look at my frame returns? Seriously, this discussion is a joke when Max Payne 3 does not even push the GPU at all. On full settings, the frames are between 130 and 300.

Let us at least argue about a game that will push the GPU. Maybe BF4 will show the weaknesses of the current GPU. The truth of the matter is the top 4 GPU's can play all current games at fantastic returns.

When frames are as low as 45 in a game, this is when the weaknesses of the top 4 cards will start to show.

Your performance is very different to mine. When I used everything maxed out on my 670 with mild OC (1200Mhz core +500Mhz memory) my frames were suffering around 30-40fps most of the time. I turned MSAA off and got 60fps constant

I maintained 60fps with everything maxed out with MSAA + FXAA with a GTX 690.

So from struggling to get 60fps on my rig to 130-300 on yours that's a huge difference and I'm sure my 670 isn't that far off a 680.

Have you tried using fraps instead of EVGA Precision to show the fps cause I'm using fraps and I've heard some other monitoring programs like afterburner were giving mega bloated fps figures.

wolvers · 5 Jun 2012 at 13:54

gregster said:
Are you choosing not to look at my screens so you can rant and rave?

I have everything on full including MSAA and it is not using the VRAM it states. Please take your blinkers off and actually look at what settings I am using. VRAM is not going over 1700MB.

Firstly, I'm not really interested in your screen shots. They have nothing at all to do with my criticism of HardOCPs biased journalism, so I don't know why you're banging on about at all. :confused:

Secondly, VRAM what? :confused:

Do you have some sort of weird VRAM paranoia or something?

I never mentioned VRAM at all!

And thirdly, you are NOT getting 130-300fps with those settings. AB and precision do not report correct fps for this game. If you had bothered to read up on it you'd know that and wouldn't be spouting nonsense at me unnecessarily. :rolleyes:

wolvers · 5 Jun 2012 at 13:56

RanxZy said:
Not sure about FXAA with a a small amount of MSAA but I've found full FXAA and 8X MSAA doesn't work well together at all in MP3. It seems to make an adverse effect.

If you are in the second chapter max will be standing next to a red neon sign when you are in the graphics settings and when you add the 8XMSAA to the FXAA the lines get very jagged on the large letters he's standing next to.

If you have passed chapter 2 already you can see this if you turn on 8XMSAA and full FXAA first then go to chapter select > to chapter 2 checkpoint 1 skip the cutscene and then exit the game to the main menu graphics settings.

Yeah I noticed that m8. It seems to be just on 8x that happens, 4x is OK for me. Better than without MSAA anyway, and there are lots of other areas where you need the MSAA to clean up the areas that FXAA misses. Have a look at the Nvidia comparison shots it shows it well.

Gregster · 5 Jun 2012 at 17:26

RanxZy said:
Your performance is very different to mine. When I used everything maxed out on my 670 with mild OC (1200Mhz core +500Mhz memory) my frames were suffering around 30-40fps most of the time. I turned MSAA off and got 60fps constant

I maintained 60fps with everything maxed out with MSAA + FXAA with a GTX 690.

So from struggling to get 60fps on my rig to 130-300 on yours that's a huge difference and I'm sure my 670 isn't that far off a 680.

Have you tried using fraps instead of EVGA Precision to show the fps cause I'm using fraps and I've heard some other monitoring programs like afterburner were giving mega bloated fps figures.

wolvers said:
Firstly, I'm not really interested in your screen shots. They have nothing at all to do with my criticism of HardOCPs biased journalism, so I don't know why you're banging on about at all.

Secondly, VRAM what? Do you have some sort of weird VRAM paranoia or something? I never mentioned VRAM at all!

And thirdly, you are NOT getting 130-300fps with those settings. AB and precision do not report correct fps for this game. If you had bothered to read up on it you'd know that and wouldn't be spouting nonsense at me unnecessarily.

Fair points. When I run fraps, the frames shown are much lower

I am getting around 50fps. As for the VRAM, I was just pointing out that the reported usage the game states is wrong, as I never went over 1700MB.

Also the game is boring and repetetive. I will persist though to just hope it gets better

My bad and it wasn't personal Wolvers. I see that Precision X reports the wrong frames and I didn't bother investigating was all. I trusted it.

wolvers · 5 Jun 2012 at 19:35

Stick with it bud, there's some really good action sequences and a bit of variation needed in the gameplay to get through some stuff. I'm really enjoying it. The voice acting and dialogue is great too.

I'm up to chapter X now.

The only thing that is really bugging me is how it keeps switching the weapons that Max is holding between cut scenes. AAARRRGGGHHH STOP DOING THAT!! :mad:

Oh and switch your MSAA to 4x. You won't notice any difference but you should get a nice smooth vsynced 60fps.

psychodil · 5 Jun 2012 at 19:54

What Res are you running gregster? Do you think you could Max the game (no pun intended) at 1600p without having vram issues on a 670/680? My friend wants to know but I don't have the game to test. Perhaps he would have to turn down AA a little?

Gregster · 5 Jun 2012 at 21:07

wolvers said:
Stick with it bud, there's some really good action sequences and a bit of variation needed in the gameplay to get through some stuff. I'm really enjoying it. The voice acting and dialogue is great too. I'm up to chapter X now.

The only thing that is really bugging me is how it keeps switching the weapons that Max is holding between cut scenes. AAARRRGGGHHH STOP DOING THAT!!

Oh and switch your MSAA to 4x. You won't notice any difference but you should get a nice smooth vsynced 60fps.

Ok, I will try the 4XMSAA, thanks for the tip and I wont give in as I don't like wasting money...Trouble is, I have also bought the Premium pack for BF3 so that has me hooked on the assignments and unlocks.

psychodil said:
What Res are you running gregster? Do you think you could Max the game (no pun intended) at 1600p without having vram issues on a 670/680? My friend wants to know but I don't have the game to test. Perhaps he would have to turn down AA a little?

I am 1080P bud. I wouldn't like to say TBH. My guess though is a 'yes it will'.

I will be turning the stats down a little anyways as fraps reports it a lot lower than what Prec X does.

RanxZy · 5 Jun 2012 at 21:26

gregster said:
I will be turning the stats down a little anyways as fraps reports it a lot lower than what Prec X does.

If you can sacrifice MSAA and just use full FXAA you can have everything else maxed out and get constant 60fps.

This game is amazing for Max Payne fans and graphically very impressive, R* have made a big step up from GTAIV!

I've completed it today and it's Max the mentalist against the world like old times, it really hooks you in.

Gregster · 5 Jun 2012 at 21:37

RanxZy said:
If you can sacrifice MSAA and just use full FXAA you can have everything else maxed out and get constant 60fps.

This game is amazing for Max Payne fans and graphically very impressive, R* have made a big step up from GTAIV!

I've completed it today and it's Max the mentalist against the world like old times, it really hooks you in.

I tend to like the First Person Shooter more than the Third Person Shooter. I keep dieing, so that isn't helping

opethdisciple · 5 Jun 2012 at 21:42

How would this game run on the system in my sig?

Gregster · 5 Jun 2012 at 21:52

opethdisciple said:
How would this game run on the system in my sig?

I am sure with settings turned down, it will run fine

wolvers · 5 Jun 2012 at 22:23

RanxZy said:
I've completed it today and it's Max the mentalist against the world like old times, it really hooks you in.

He's got to be the worst body guard ever though!!

gregster said:
I tend to like the First Person Shooter more than the Third Person Shooter. I keep dieing, so that isn't helping

Me too, on both of those counts.

I've had to slow down and take my time, you can't really run and gun too much. Use lots of cover and bullet time to get head shots, even if it's just one at a time. Then try two at a time etc. It's rewarding once you get it. :cool:

opethdisciple · 6 Jun 2012 at 17:44

OP could add this as well.

bee · 6 Jun 2012 at 18:12

with the patch out today, fraps and precisionX both now work for me. so i've been trying the smaa injector with it and it does a nice job visually at least, had fraps running and was showing around 35fps at 6050x1080 2D which i thought was probably about right even if it did feel much more stuttery than before. removed the smaa files and chose fxaa very high, loaded my game up (top of skyscraper act 2) where i was gettin 35fps with smaa and with fxaa i'm now getting 120fps......hmmmmm think i'll stick to fxaa

Rusty0611 · 6 Jun 2012 at 18:14

Interesting stuff. The 670 is holding up really well. Not surprising to see the 680 top the charts.

psychodil · 6 Jun 2012 at 19:29

opethdisciple said:
OP could add this as well.

Hmm very different results from hardOCP :confused:

They had the 7970 and 680 about level whereas the tech spot review shows a clear advantage to the 680 :confused:

IvanDobskey · 6 Jun 2012 at 20:19

RanxZy said:
You should be able to max it out with everything except mabybe using full FXAA instead of MSAA.

Cheers, good to hear

Nice to see the GTX480 is still holding up really well with the latest games. Won't be needing an upgrade for a year or so yet hopefully.

wolvers · 6 Jun 2012 at 20:27

Looks like they didn't use the CAP profile.

Also (not that it's necessarily relevant);

For our very high quality tests we didn’t use MSAA

Are Nvidia telling reviewers not to add MSAA?

tommybhoy · 6 Jun 2012 at 21:02

psychodil said:
Hmm very different results from hardOCP
They had the 7970 and 680 about level whereas the tech spot review shows a clear advantage to the 680

Ambient Occlusion-[H]-HDAO

Ambient Occlusion-Techspot-SSAO

wolvers said:
Looks like they didn't use the CAP profile.

Also (not that it's necessarily relevant);

Are Nvidia telling reviewers not to add MSAA?

They used the 12.6 CAP beta 1, but it's not clear whether they used the actual 12.6 Beta driver:

'I like these articles, but this one is done wrong. You should have used the latest Max Payne drivers,
ForceWare 301.42 WHQL and,

12.6 CAP Beta 1 (for single card & crossfire).'

'We did use the GeForce 301.42 drivers and the 12.6 CAP drivers do nothing for single card performance in Max Payne 3 so I am not sure how this article is “done wrong”.

http://www.techspot.com/news/48899-max-payne-3-performance-tested-benchmarked.html#comments

I don't think Nvidia can tell anyone not to use MSAA, unless they provide the cards for testing purposes of course.

It's not a given that AMD is going to come out on top either anyway, but it would be nice to know what's what.

I'm still totally puzzled regarding MSAA STILL not being enabled on a card that can pull 81fps@1920x1200, is that not what should be getting asked regarding the top end monsters?

Most high end gpu users will get a given game and slap the settings to max and work there way down for the sweet-spot after all.

wolvers · 6 Jun 2012 at 21:37

No, I don't think they did use the CAP profile. Read it again, he's saying that they used 301.42 but not the CAP because they think it does nothing for single card performance in MP3. Clearly they have done it wrong. LOL, how difficult is it for reviewers to research these things properly?!

Nvidia are contradicting themselves a bit over MSAA. In their MP3 reviewers guide they go on about how FXAA is better and more efficient than the aging MSAA. Yet in their tweaking guide their own comparison shots clearly show that FXAA needs a bit of help from MSAA to get the stuff missed. If you read the way their reviewers guide is written about MSAA, that'll be why they aren't using it in reviews.