Why do I get lag on Far Cry 3 no matter the resolution or quality?

[Legolas8181]

I have tried on 1080p and 720p and from low to ultra qualities yet lag on all of them. I am on an i7-4700MQ with 8GB RAM and a 765M. I do have the latest drivers and don't say it's because I am on a laptop because I have played COD, BF 4 and AC IV without a single problem, I completed BF 4 without a single frame drop

 

[VincentP]

Far Cry 3 is more demanding than these games.
Read this article:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-765M.92907.0.html

"Demanding games like Metro: Last Light, Crysis 3, Far Cry 3 or even SimCity were playable in 1366x768 pixels and high detail settings at fluent frame rates. Older and less demanding games like Star Craft 2 however were playable in Full HD with all settings set to max."

Have you measured the frame rates you are getting with FRAPS?

 

[plaintuts]

no, your laptop is quite capable of high ultra for far cry 3.

it may be a corrupt game installation.

 

[VincentP]

no, your laptop is quite capable of high ultra for far cry 3.

it may be a corrupt game installation.

Better to Remain Silent and Be Thought a Fool than to Speak and Remove All Doubt

 

[plaintuts]

no, your laptop is quite capable of high ultra for far cry 3.

it may be a corrupt game installation.

Better to Remain Silent and Be Thought a Fool than to Speak and Remove All Doubt

wow thats cute,

have you noticed he tried with 720p resolution?
nice quote from notebookcheck.net, by the way..

degrading a computer specs without hands on experience... nice.

 

[HolyCowImAnoOb]

I suspect the game might be making use of the i7's built in gpu. Make sure you force the laptop to use the high performance gpu, and put it in performance mode when it comes to battery saving.

just my 2cents

 

[VincentP]

no, your laptop is quite capable of high ultra for far cry 3.

it may be a corrupt game installation.

Better to Remain Silent and Be Thought a Fool than to Speak and Remove All Doubt

wow thats cute,

have you noticed he tried with 720p resolution?
nice quote from notebookcheck.net, by the way..

degrading a computer specs without hands on experience... nice.

A GTX 765M (laptop graphics) has half the number of unified shaders, texture mapping units and render output units compared to a GTX 770 (desktop graphics), all running at much lower clock rates:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_700_series

A GTX 770 can run Far Cry 3 at 50 FPS with ultra settings on 1080p.
There is no way a GTX 765M could run these settings.

At 768p with high detail settings it should be playable according to the notebookcheck article. How people perceive playable though can be different, hence my question on frame rates experienced.

As to your reference to "hands on experience", clearly no one has tested every piece of hardware themselves. This is what expert reviews are for.

 

[plaintuts]

no, your laptop is quite capable of high ultra for far cry 3.

it may be a corrupt game installation.

Better to Remain Silent and Be Thought a Fool than to Speak and Remove All Doubt

wow thats cute,

have you noticed he tried with 720p resolution?
nice quote from notebookcheck.net, by the way..

degrading a computer specs without hands on experience... nice.

A GTX 765M (laptop graphics) has half the number of unified shaders, texture mapping units and render output units compared to a GTX 770 (desktop graphics), all running at much lower clock rates:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_700_series

A GTX 770 can run Far Cry 3 at 50 FPS with ultra settings on 1080p.
There is no way a GTX 765M could run these settings.

At 768p with high detail settings it should be playable according to the notebookcheck article. How people perceive playable though can be different, hence my question on frame rates experienced.

As to your reference to "hands on experience", clearly no one has tested every piece of hardware themselves. This is what expert reviews are for.

like i said "nice quote from notebookcheck.net, by the way.. "

the very first item in google search after typing 765m, i think that's expert reviews.

look, i have no intention of dragging this comment further, so if logalas8181 manages to reply,

i suggest we should just help him.

 

[Legolas8181]

So is it that my GPU isn't good enough to run at that setting?

 

[plaintuts]

If the game is lagging in 720p and low settings, then re-install the game and check for improvements.

Also like holycowimanoob said, switch to high performance power option.

 

[Rationale]

What do you have antialiasing set to? MSAA is a ridiculously big framerate hit in FC3. I only run 2x, and on a mobile card like the 765m you shouldn't use any. Just rely on the game's internal FXAA.

Also, HBAO in FC3 is optimized for Nvidia. If you decide to use AO, make sure it's HBAO.

 

[Legolas8181]

What do you have antialiasing set to? MSAA is a ridiculously big framerate hit in FC3. I only run 2x, and on a mobile card like the 765m you shouldn't use any. Just rely on the game's internal FXAA.

Also, HBAO in FC3 is optimized for Nvidia. If you decide to use AO, make sure it's HBAO.

So I switched t High Performance, lowered to 768p, put the quality on Medium and put HBAO on (whatever that is) and so far all good but it's still early. Had a fight with 3 dogs and while I didn't think to look at the FPS cus I was trying not to die soon as it finished it was still at 50FPS. I soon died from taking a big fall and on that loading screen I got 25FPS but then it went up to 50 when I was back in the game

 

[Rationale]

What do you have antialiasing set to? MSAA is a ridiculously big framerate hit in FC3. I only run 2x, and on a mobile card like the 765m you shouldn't use any. Just rely on the game's internal FXAA.

Also, HBAO in FC3 is optimized for Nvidia. If you decide to use AO, make sure it's HBAO.

So I switched t High Performance, lowered to 768p, put the quality on Medium and put HBAO on (whatever that is) and so far all good but it's still early. Had a fight with 3 dogs and while I didn't think to look at the FPS cus I was trying not to die soon as it finished it was still at 50FPS. I soon died from taking a big fall and on that loading screen I got 25FPS but then it went up to 50 when I was back in the game

HBAO is the sort of black shadow shading thing that appears around objects. If I remember correctly, the options are SSAO, HDAO and HBAO. HDAO is meant for AMD cards, and HBAO is meant for Nvidia cards. Using the wrong one sometimes hurts performance more than it should. SSAO would probably work for either AMD or Nvidia perfectly but it's more simplistic and doesn't look quite as nice (imo).

Load screens are usually supposed to drop to 25-30 fps, just so you know. The game often caps load screens at 25 fps to ensure most of your system resources go to loading the game instead of making the load screen look pretty. :3

Anyway, hopefully it'll work out for you.

 

[Legolas8181]

What do you have antialiasing set to? MSAA is a ridiculously big framerate hit in FC3. I only run 2x, and on a mobile card like the 765m you shouldn't use any. Just rely on the game's internal FXAA.

Also, HBAO in FC3 is optimized for Nvidia. If you decide to use AO, make sure it's HBAO.

So I switched t High Performance, lowered to 768p, put the quality on Medium and put HBAO on (whatever that is) and so far all good but it's still early. Had a fight with 3 dogs and while I didn't think to look at the FPS cus I was trying not to die soon as it finished it was still at 50FPS. I soon died from taking a big fall and on that loading screen I got 25FPS but then it went up to 50 when I was back in the game

HBAO is the sort of black shadow shading thing that appears around objects. If I remember correctly, the options are SSAO, HDAO and HBAO. HDAO is meant for AMD cards, and HBAO is meant for Nvidia cards. Using the wrong one sometimes hurts performance more than it should. SSAO would probably work for either AMD or Nvidia perfectly but it's more simplistic and doesn't look quite as nice (imo).

Load screens are usually supposed to drop to 25-30 fps, just so you know. The game often caps load screens at 25 fps to ensure most of your system resources go to loading the game instead of making the load screen look pretty. :3

Anyway, hopefully it'll work out for you.

Last night I was getting an awful amount of lag but now it's all good. Not sure if it's the High Performance or the HBAO but something has worked (and just felt my laptop and it doens't feel as hot as it normally is

 

[VincentP]

HBAO and HDAO implementations in this game aren't great. SSAO will use less resources and many people think it looks better:
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/12/17/far_cry_3_video_card_performance_iq_review/7#.U3RgSYGSyao

MSAA causes a big performance hit.
PostFX also causes a big hit, and for very little improvement.

 

[Legolas8181]

HBAO and HDAO implementations in this game aren't great. SSAO will use less resources and many people think it looks better:
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/12/17/far_cry_3_video_card_performance_iq_review/7#.U3RgSYGSyao

MSAA causes a big performance hit.
PostFX also causes a big hit, and for very little improvement.

Well what I did has wrked but now for some reason I can't get it to stay at 768p after tabbing out. I put it there, apply it but then when I tab out it goes back to 1080p

 

[VincentP]

HBAO and HDAO implementations in this game aren't great. SSAO will use less resources and many people think it looks better:
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/12/17/far_cry_3_video_card_performance_iq_review/7#.U3RgSYGSyao

MSAA causes a big performance hit.
PostFX also causes a big hit, and for very little improvement.

Well what I did has wrked but now for some reason I can't get it to stay at 768p after tabbing out. I put it there, apply it but then when I tab out it goes back to 1080p

When you ALT-TAB out of this game it switches to windowed mode and you have to go into the video settings to make it full screen again. Very annoying, but just don't ALT+TAB from the game.

You have to apply the video settings after changing the resolution and then these should be kept.

 

[Legolas8181]

HBAO and HDAO implementations in this game aren't great. SSAO will use less resources and many people think it looks better:
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/12/17/far_cry_3_video_card_performance_iq_review/7#.U3RgSYGSyao

MSAA causes a big performance hit.
PostFX also causes a big hit, and for very little improvement.

Well what I did has wrked but now for some reason I can't get it to stay at 768p after tabbing out. I put it there, apply it but then when I tab out it goes back to 1080p

When you ALT-TAB out of this game it switches to windowed mode and you have to go into the video settings to make it full screen again. Very annoying, but just don't ALT+TAB from the game.

You have to apply the video settings after changing the resolution and then these should be kept.

So since the native resolution is 1080p it will always want to go back to that? I can't make it stay at 768p?

 

[Rationale]

HBAO and HDAO implementations in this game aren't great. SSAO will use less resources and many people think it looks better:
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/12/17/far_cry_3_video_card_performance_iq_review/7#.U3RgSYGSyao

MSAA causes a big performance hit.
PostFX also causes a big hit, and for very little improvement.

Well, they're wrong. Every trailer and promotional screen for FC3 uses HBAO. Ubisoft keeps putting HBAO in their most graphically impressive games. Nvidia continues to develop HBAO. It's quite literally the most advanced and most realistic form of ambient occlusion.

If some random guy on HardOCP disagrees... I guess there's a reason they're not a game developer.

PostFX enables high quality FXAA. Turning it down will make jaggies and/or blur devour the screen without enhanced alpha to coverage and more MSAA. Fair warning.

 

[HolyCowImAnoOb]

Also another random thing. Make sure your windows hasnt got a rogue/broken process running, using all the cpu. leave your task manager running while you play and have a looksee what your usage is. Just and alt tab to view usage for the last couple seconds.

 

[Legolas8181]

Also another random thing. Make sure your windows hasnt got a rogue/broken process running, using all the cpu. leave your task manager running while you play and have a looksee what your usage is. Just and alt tab to view usage for the last couple seconds.

I have a CPU and RAM monitor on my desktop all the time and the CPU never runs high unless am doing something CPU intense. Also, how do I make sure that my dedicated GPU is being used?

 

[plaintuts]

You already did, with high performace power option.

 

[VincentP]

HBAO and HDAO implementations in this game aren't great. SSAO will use less resources and many people think it looks better:
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/12/17/far_cry_3_video_card_performance_iq_review/7#.U3RgSYGSyao

MSAA causes a big performance hit.
PostFX also causes a big hit, and for very little improvement.

Well, they're wrong. Every trailer and promotional screen for FC3 uses HBAO. Ubisoft keeps putting HBAO in their most graphically impressive games. Nvidia continues to develop HBAO. It's quite literally the most advanced and most realistic form of ambient occlusion.

If some random guy on HardOCP disagrees... I guess there's a reason they're not a game developer.

PostFX enables high quality FXAA. Turning it down will make jaggies and/or blur devour the screen without enhanced alpha to coverage and more MSAA. Fair warning.

HBAO is Nvidia's attempt at an implementation of ambient occlusion that improves on SSAO.
This doesn't mean it is actually an improvement in every game or situation.
Certainly it causes a greater performance hit than SSAO, so even if you do prefer HBAO you have to weigh that against the drop in frame rates.

PostFX includes effects like motion blur and bloom. These affect things like the blurriness when you are shot or the look of a muzzle flash. Certainly nothing like what you have described. Again, it's arguable whether these effects improve your experience in the game but they certainly have an impact on performance.
Some people disable PostFX, which is not available through the in game menu:
Edit, correct link: http://forums.ubi.com/showthread.php/731880-Guide-How-To-Disable-Depth-Of-Field-Forums

 

[bystander]

I personally thought HBAO was over done in FC3. I used SSAO instead if I was playing in 2D, though most the time I had to live with HBAO, because I played in 3D Vision with DX9, which doesn't give SSAO as an option. Both attempt to do the same thing, SSAO is supposed to be the compromise, but in FC3, HBAO may have been made to be too dark. It certainly seemed that way to me.

 

[Rationale]

HBAO and HDAO implementations in this game aren't great. SSAO will use less resources and many people think it looks better:
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/12/17/far_cry_3_video_card_performance_iq_review/7#.U3RgSYGSyao

MSAA causes a big performance hit.
PostFX also causes a big hit, and for very little improvement.

Well, they're wrong. Every trailer and promotional screen for FC3 uses HBAO. Ubisoft keeps putting HBAO in their most graphically impressive games. Nvidia continues to develop HBAO. It's quite literally the most advanced and most realistic form of ambient occlusion.

If some random guy on HardOCP disagrees... I guess there's a reason they're not a game developer.

PostFX enables high quality FXAA. Turning it down will make jaggies and/or blur devour the screen without enhanced alpha to coverage and more MSAA. Fair warning.

HBAO is Nvidia's attempt at an implementation of ambient occlusion that improves on SSAO.
This doesn't mean it is actually an improvement in every game or situation.
Certainly it causes a greater performance hit than SSAO, so even if you do prefer HBAO you have to weigh that against the drop in frame rates.

PostFX includes effects like motion blur and bloom. These affect things like the blurriness when you are shot or the look of a muzzle flash. Certainly nothing like what you have described. Again, it's arguable whether these effects improve your experience in the game but they certainly have an impact on performance.
Some people disable PostFX, which is not available through the in game menu:
Edit, correct link: http://forums.ubi.com/showthread.php/731880-Guide-How-To-Disable-Depth-Of-Field-Forums

PostFX is linked to motion blur and bloom as you described - But it's also linked to FXAA.