Need for Speed SHIFT Gameplay Performance and IQ

E.R said:
Either the driver inproved drasicly as it was eye to eye with 285 in first review but the 92% is something i take with a big truckload of salt unless driver and patch made that mutch of difference, if so god job AMD.
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I trust [H] to make a honest review regardless of the results and don't doubt that the 5870 was 92% faster in this game compared to the GTX285. If both Nvidia and AMD drivers were optimized for this game, I wonder what made the difference? Lack of optimization in the Nvidia drivers, making the GTX285 not perform as it should, or is the 5870 that much faster when drivers are optimized?
 
Tamlin_WSGF said:
I trust [H] to make a honest review regardless of the results and don't doubt that the 5870 was 92% faster in this game compared to the GTX285. If both Nvidia and AMD drivers were optimized for this game, I wonder what made the difference? Lack of optimization in the Nvidia drivers, making the GTX285 not perform as it should, or is the 5870 that much faster when drivers are optimized?
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The 5870 is faster than 285 period, especially at that resolution, and don't forget that 8xAA was enabled also which is a real killer for the 285. The results speak for themselves, the 5800 series is THE card to own for high resolution with 8xAA enabled.
 
Tamlin_WSGF said:
I trust [H] to make a honest review regardless of the results and don't doubt that the 5870 was 92% faster in this game compared to the GTX285. If both Nvidia and AMD drivers were optimized for this game, I wonder what made the difference? Lack of optimization in the Nvidia drivers, making the GTX285 not perform as it should, or is the 5870 that much faster when drivers are optimized?
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I dont trust H over other sites that has result more in the ballpark and never fail to do so i dont take it without some salt nomatter what filter/effect/resolution are as H is alone with that result, but as i said they have done a good job with the patch and driver.
I dont think NV driver are optimzed yet, just because it is an NV sponsored game dont mean it is optimized from the start for them.
 
E.R said:
just because it is an NV sponsored game dont mean it is optimized from the start for them.
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Yea, it does. That means the developers used Nvidia hardware to optimize their game code. There's no reason to think Nvidia didn't have a hand in making sure the game would run as well as it possibly could on their hardware.

The fact is, the 5870 is faster than the 285 and at that resolution with 8xAA enabled, it's considerably faster.

I notice you run Nvidia, which is why you're getting to bent out out of shape. Take the Nvidia rose colored glasses off and realize that ATI is on top now. I had a GTX 285 and now I have a 5850, I've been on both sides of the fence this year and I have no problem admitting that ATI is the better solution. Sell your 280's now while they're still worth something.
 
Blkout said:
Yea, it does. That means the developers used Nvidia hardware to optimize their game code. There's no reason to think Nvidia didn't have a hand in making sure the game would run as well as it possibly could on their hardware.

The fact is, the 5870 is faster than the 285 and at that resolution with 8xAA enabled, it's considerably faster.

I notice you run Nvidia, which is why you're getting to bent out out of shape. Take the Nvidia rose colored glasses off and realize that ATI is on top now. I had a GTX 285 and now I have a 5850, I've been on both sides of the fence this year and I have no problem admitting that ATI is the better solution. Sell your 280's now while they're still worth something.
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It only means NV helped them, not put "their" code in the game and "uglycode" that ATI cand understand. NFS:s latest installment has always been faster on ATI so what?

So what if i now use NV right now it does not make me any fanboy as i do consider red card this time. Where did i say 285 is the best one?, 280 was the best thing when i got it and needed a replacement for the crap excuse of card 9800Gx2 period, i am now in the market for DX11 cards but can afford to wait for 2GB cards to begin with and perhaps even GF100 as my setup still going strong and no real game for DX11 is out yet or the 280 can´t handle it, DIRT2 is the first one that might be what is needed. So unlike you i will never buy anything less than 2GB cards now on.
I dont need to get 25% or anything of the cards out now as they have paid them self of big time already so i can kill them and thown them on the junkyard if i want to and still not loose anything by it.

Unlike you i dont swallow every bench that come this or that way, nowhere you can see that 5870 are IN GENERAL 90% faster than a 285 as every game give different result, that is is faster have i never doubted or said diffrently about, just how mutch as the extreme of 90% dont make it the truth so step down and read instead of jump conclusions.

Where exactly did i say 285 is faster again? I only said 5870 is not 90% faster because of the extreme result in NFS:Shift that needs more fact as why it happend. Would that by using same way of compare make 275 faster than 5870 just because one review made 275 slightly faster than 5870 in 1680x1050?
 
E.R said:
I dont trust H over other sites that has result more in the ballpark and never fail to do so i dont take it without some salt nomatter what filter/effect/resolution are as H is alone with that result, but as i said they have done a good job with the patch and driver.
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I trust [H] over other sites because the report what they see without bullshit. They've had their threats of being pulled advertisement and review hardware unless they reviewed hardware according to the companies wishes. [H] have refused such crap, making them more honest then others who didn't refuse it.

E.R said:
I dont think NV driver are optimzed yet, just because it is an NV sponsored game dont mean it is optimized from the start for them.
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This is from TWIMTBP program and NFS shift is a TWIMTBP game:
The Hottest Games Developed and Optimized on NVIDIA: The performance, compatibility, and reliability of NVIDIA GPUs make them the platform of choice for PC gamers worldwide. That's why today's hottest games are developed on NVIDIA, to be played on NVIDIA.
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Unless the TWIMTBP program is just hot air, it should mean that the game is optimized on Nvidia already. At least somewhat optimized.

92% faster then GTX285 puzzles me anyway. As you say, it is an extreme result and I wonder why? Perhaps Brent Justice has some input on this?
 
E.R said:
It only means NV helped them, not put "their" code in the game and "uglycode" that ATI cand understand.
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Of course they didn't, and saying anything to that effect would indicate that the person doesn't have a clue how DirectX *or* OpenGL work. DirectX is higher level than a lot of people here seem to think it is. Drivers play a *massive* role in performance, easily more so than the code of the game itself. Things like shaders need to be dynamically compiled for the card, which is done by the driver.

Also, the apples to apples in [h]'s first 5870 review are *NOT* the same settings as they are in the newest one. The first review's apples to apples used 4xAA, this one used 8xAA. I could very easily see the 285 taking a larger hit than the 5870 with the higher AA level.
 
Tamlin_WSGF said:
I trust [H] over other sites because the report what they see without bullshit. They've had their threats of being pulled advertisement and review hardware unless they reviewed hardware according to the companies wishes. [H] have refused such crap, making them more honest then others who didn't refuse it.



This is from TWIMTBP program and NFS shift is a TWIMTBP game:


Unless the TWIMTBP program is just hot air, it should mean that the game is optimized on Nvidia already. At least somewhat optimized.

92% faster then GTX285 puzzles me anyway. As you say, it is an extreme result and I wonder why? Perhaps Brent Justice has some input on this?
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Since the game was not SLI-compatible from the start and the patch had little/less than for ATI-card inpact on the game it was not optimized in the way i expect it to be to even call it anything more than just a regular game, it should be SLI-compatible at least to begin to be "optimized" or make the TWIMTBP worth more than just air that i think it is so the only conclution i can draw is that ATI did a god job on the driver and the patch did something that aint fully in the light yet or the 285 do take a bigger hit than ever before.
 
E.R said:
Since the game was not SLI-compatible from the start and the patch had little/less than for ATI-card inpact on the game it was not optimized in the way i expect it to be to even call it anything more than just a regular game, it should be SLI-compatible at least to begin to be "optimized" or make the TWIMTBP worth more than just air that i think it is so the only conclution i can draw is that ATI did a god job on the driver and the patch did something that aint fully in the light yet or the 285 do take a bigger hit than ever before.
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The reason - in my opinion - why SLI wasn't optimized, was because they had to get the game out before the end of EA's financial quarter. We all know EA is loosing money.

SMS were assigned an engineer as part of TWIMTBP, who helped optimize Shift, as a result people with mid-range Nvidia cards could play the game at decent frame rates. I can't remember where I read this, but if I find the link I'll post it.

ATI did get to test the game and replied to SMS with a list of bug and inefficiencies, but the game was released anyway.

From an ATI standpoint, as far as I'm concerned, this "Gameplay Performance and IQ" article was a total white wash. If a game is known to have terrible performance issues on a platform and you are a credible journalist, then the only reason why you wouldn't try to re-create those issues, would be due to an NDA which prevented specific tests.

A 15-25% driver based performance improvement will not get this game to an enjoyable state for most ATI users who are seeing 20 fps with other cars on screen. I'm just holding on to a glimmer of hope that on a mainstream platform, when the GPU is not nearing it's fillrate limit at 12xCFAA, that we'll see some decent gains from this long overdue patch.
 
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Another great review by TimeLord Brent. Ok, so this is a good sign for 5800 series cards. It'll be interesting if this type of performance increase will be applied to all games.
 
Wow, ever since the original Forza Motorsports came out on the Xbox I've been looking for a PC title that comes close... SHiFT looks like it just might fit the bill!!!

Thanks for the excellent review, guys!
 
I'm running Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit, 8GB DDR2 800, Q9550 and a ATI Radeon HD5870 1GB. I've just upgraded to Catalyst 9.11, and all the stuttering and low frame rates went away. I can play now NFS Shift (finally), and it's smooth as butter. I'm using the first NFS pacth 1.01, since the second one isn't available yet. If anyone else can report a similar experience, please post a reply, it'd be very helpful for many other ATI users.

Thanks, and have a great day :D
 
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wolfman3k5 said:
I'm running Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit, 8GB DDR2 800, Q9550 and a ATI Radeon HD5870 1GB. I've just upgraded to Catalyst 9.11, and all the stuttering and low frame rates went away. I can play now NFS Shift (finally), and it's smooth as butter. I'm using the first NFS pacth 1.01, since the second one isn't available yet. If anyone else can report a similar experience, please post a reply, it'd be very helpful for many other ATI users.

Thanks, and have a great day :D
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I've been following this on other forums, and it seems that 9.11 does not contain the optimizations for Shift that HardOCP reviewed. They are due in 9.12 apparently.

Have you tried a race at Toyko Club, with 16 opponents?

ATI have previously stated, their drivers will not fix any inherent floors in Shift. So a driver update should give you a 10-25% improvement, but it shouldn't be able to make Shift playable on all tracks with 16 oponents.
 
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I loved this game while I was playing it on my 275 however the random game crashes in the first corner can get a little frustrating. However I recently sold my 275 and I am now using a 256mb 8800gt until I get myself a new 5 series radeon. Wow is there a world of difference, went from 1920x 1080 everything high with 4xaa 16xaf down to 1600x900 with everything on low no aa or af and the game is not even playable.

Just a little curious if anyone else here is having the game crash on them alot. I've deleted the graphics(not sure of the exact name) file in My documents which seems to fix it for a while but eventually it starts crashing again right as I get into a race. Looking forward to the patch coming up here and hopefully it will fix my issues.
 
Just wanted to point out that I I've installed the patch as well as the beta drivers and my min FPS with my 5870 quadrupled! It would drop as low as 17fps during the start of the races when the whole grid was in front of me. Infact, FPS has increased so much that I've had to turn vsync on to stop the tearing. It's at a solid 60fps all the time now. I coudln't even swing 60fps as my max FPS before the patch and drivers. I can FINALLY enjoy the game.
 
For some unknown reason, I never experience a fps drop below 45fps on my videocard at 1280x1024, everything maxed plus 8xFSAA, it runs constantly at 55fps-65fps. With the latest patch the FPS didn't change much, but the abnormal stuttering that would occur when it hitted 45fps is less often now.
 
Well with the new patch, it makes a big difference in load times, not so much fps wise.
 
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