Baseline Performance & MSAA Anti-Aliasing Performance Measured

To answer the original question, “what kind of system will you require to get the most from Max Payne 3?”, we used a vertical slice of graphically intensive Max Payne 3 action to test the performance of our new 600-Series GeForce GTX GPUs, and last generation’s 500-Series GeForce GTX GPUs. All in-game options were set to their maximum value, and the resolution was locked at 1920x1080. The 8800 GT, a mainstay of our benchmarks, was also tested, but has been omitted from our charts as its lack of DirectX 11 support prevented us from running a truly comparative test. Using 'Normal' DirectX 9 detail settings, the venerable and still-popular card was only capable of 25.7 frames per second without anti-aliasing at the same 1920x1080 resolution.

The many options available in Max Payne 3's graphics menu.

The performance chart below shows the performance of our 500 and 600 Series GPUs, without anti-aliasing and with Max Payne 3’s DirectX 11-enhanced Multisample Anti-Aliasing (MSAA):

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Without Rockstar’s advanced MSAA anti-aliasing, the special edition GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 Core GPU is the first card to push past 60 frames per second, closely followed by the GTX 570. At the top-end the GTX 670 and GTX 680 pass by the 100 frames per second goal post, and the ultra-desirable dual-GPU GTX 690 breezes past 120 frames per second. At the low end, the GTX 550 Ti puts in a decent effort with a result of 34.4 frames per second, but given the intensity of the game and system-to-system variance slightly lower quality settings are recommended to maintain a consistently smooth experience. As such, the GTX 560 is the first card to provide a truly playable experience using max settings, but how does the situation stack up with MSAA enabled?

Referring once more to the chart, we can see that Max Payne 3’s DirectX 11-enhanced MSAA Anti-Aliasing has a significant impact on frame rates, pushing the GTX 550 Ti, GTX 560 and GTX 560 Ti below a playable 30 frames per second. With a result of 35.8 frames per second, the 448 Core GTX 560 Ti was the first card to give us a smooth experience, closely followed by the GTX 570.

From the GTX 550 Ti to the GTX 680, performance decreased by between 43% and 54% when enabling 4xMSAA, but on the dual-GPU GTX 690 we recorded a far lower 28% reduction, suggesting that the MSAA calculations are efficiently offloaded to the second on-board GPU. This allowed the GTX 690 to reach an enviable 91.3 frames per second, 41 frames per second faster than the GTX 680. Furthermore, this extra performance makes the GTX 690 the only card capable of using 8xMSAA in conjunction with every other maxed out setting.

An Alternative Anti-Aliasing Method: FXAA

Max Payne 3 also includes an alternative low-cost, performance-light anti-aliasing method. Called FXAA, this anti-aliasing technique works at the shader level and produces smooth edges without consuming extra memory. The quality of this technique is close to that of MSAA, and due to its developer-level implementation, the use of the latest version of FXAA, the game’s high-speed action, and the game’s many visual effects, texture blurring (a side-effect of post-process anti-aliasing) is nigh on impossible to detect during gameplay.

Using our nifty, interactive screenshot comparison tool below, the impact of anti-aliasing is clear to see when compared to the same exact scene rendered with and without FXAA anti-aliasing, and again when rendered with and without MSAA anti-aliasing.

Click to view a full size interactive comparison comparing 'No Anti-Aliasing' and 'FXAA Anti-Aliasing'.

Click to view a full size interactive comparison comparing 'No Anti-Aliasing' and '4xMSAA Anti-Aliasing'.

Click to view a full size interactive comparison comparing 'FXAA Anti-Aliasing' and '4xMSAA Anti-Aliasing'.

With a performance impact of just 1.7% compared to 4xMSAA’s 43% to 54%, measured using the same test setup as earlier, FXAA is the recommended option for GTX 550 Ti, GTX 560, and GTX 560 Ti users who wish to continue using the highest detail settings, but also remove jagged, distracting edges and other aliasing artifacts without sacrificing performance.

CPU Sensitivity

You may have noticed, both in this piece and previous pieces that we use top end CPUs in benchmarks to expose the full potential of our GPUs, ensuring that our graphics cards are in no way bottlenecked or limited by the rest of the system. However, we’re frequently asked by gamers to provide performance data for systems with CPUs that cost a little less than a thousand dollars. So we've done just that below, revealing how Max Payne 3 performs on a GTX 680, using the same settings as earlier, on four very different Intel CPUs.

The first CPU we examined was the Q6600, a five-year old Quad Core chip rated at 2.4GHz. As shown on the chart above, frame rates plummeted by 45.77% compared to our top-end 3.3GHz i7-3960X result. Referring to our 'no anti-aliasing' results from our previous performance chart, created using the same thousand dollar i7-3960X CPU, this significant performance hit would push the GTX 550 Ti and GTX 560 below 30 frames per second, and would put the GTX 560 Ti on the borderline of playability.

The second CPU on tap was the 3.1GHz i3-2100, an entry-level $120 Sandy Bridge Dual Core CPU released last year. Compared to the i7-3960X, performance was reduced by just 14.1%, pushing only the GTX 550 Ti below 30 frames per second. This is especially impressive given the official system requirements listing a 3GHz Dual Core CPU as only being suitable for ‘low detail’ game settings. Clearly, they instead refer to older Dual Core chips released around the time of the aforementioned Q6600, but it just goes to show, generalized system requirements can never accurately portray performance. Instead, users should reference our Optimal Playable Settings tool and refer to articles such as this and our renowned tweak guides.

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And finally, we ran Intel’s flagship 3.5GHz i7-3770K Ivy Bridge CPU through the ringer. Released late April at a cost of $350, the chip is a bargain, comparatively speaking, given that its performance in Max Payne 3 was only 1.14% lower than that of the $1000 i7-3960X.

A 14% performance reduction from a chip $880 cheaper, 2 cores lighter, 400MHz slower, and 9 months older suggests to us that Max Payne 3 is GPU limited, meaning performance is determined more by the graphics card than the CPU. If it were the reverse we would see a significant performance differentiation between the entry level Sandy Bridge i3-2100 and the top-end i7-3960X. The performance noted on the Q6600, meanwhile, can be attributed to its older design, slower supporting technology, and slower stock clock speed, though even with a 700MHz speed bump we doubt the gap would close to any noticeable degree.

Given our findings we would therefore recommend the i3-2100 or a comparable chip as the minimum recommended CPU for Max Payne 3 players with mid-range, previous-generation NVIDIA 500-Series GPUs. More expensive processors offer diminishing returns that are hard to justify in this context, but you should of course look at the whole picture and factor in whether you’ll be video editing or playing CPU-bound games like Civilization V.

Optimal Playable Settings

Bringing together our various results, findings and discoveries, we conclude our performance analysis with the recommended optimal playable settings for the GPUs tested in this Max Payne 3 deep dive. Each recommendation is designed to ensure a playable frame rate with that bit extra spare for the game’s most intensive moments, but as with anything on the PC extra user configuration will be required to tailor the experience to a specific system. For further assistance in this regard stay tuned for our comprehensive Max Payne 3 Tweak Guide, which will examine each and every game setting and show you how to get the absolute best balance between visual fidelity and consistently smooth performance.

PC Gameplay Impressions

Having played Max Payne 3 from start to finish several times over, we can confidently say that it is a great threequel, and a great game in its own right. On the PC, the action flows smoothly and mouse control allows players to slow motion dive through plate-glass windows whilst effortlessly headshotting six goons, the final kill triggering a bullet cam that tracks the ordinance from Max’s guns to the target’s soon-to-be-destroyed noggin. These ‘Max Payne Moments’ come thick and fast, both from pre-scripted setups and your own emergent gameplay moments in wide-open offices and strobe-filled nightclubs, which drown out the unmistakable sound of gunfire with their ‘banging techno music’.

From start to finish Rockstar maintains immersion by switching seamlessly between pre-recorded cutscenes and the real deal to disguise the game’s loading screens, before swooping down in a single motion to hand the keys back to the player, typically as the action kicks off, as is Max’s luck. Filters and effects betray Max’s emotions, the screen tinged with red when angered or hurt, and blurred as his drink and drug-addled brain struggles to process the latest catastrophe to encroach on his dream of a quiet, peaceful life.

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Jumping from past to present, Rockstar bridges the gap between the conclusion of Max Payne 2, and the titular character’s current predicament, often with the assistance of Max’s own biting internal monologue, full of dark humor, self-deprecation, and self-loathing. Key words and sentences flash on screen, recalling Man on Fire’s unique cinematic stylings, which are further enhanced by Rockstar’s refusal to subtitle foreign-language dialogue, leaving both the player and Max in the dark, wondering whether the latest suspicious character is plotting his demise or merely commenting on the weather.

Once completed, Max Payne 3’s engrossing campaign can be replayed to unlock hardcore, ‘one-shot and you’re dead’ modes; to unlock gameplay modifiers such as infinite ammo; to discover clues previously missed that provide further details about the situation and cast of shady characters; and to unlock optional ‘Golden Gun’ weapon skins. Also on tap are two further modes that radically shake up the single-player formula, putting players to the test against the clock and their own combo-chaining abilities, the times and scores shared with friends and the online worldwide populace.

And last, but certainly not least, there’s a fully-fledged online multiplayer mode starring deathmatch, team deathmatch, and team objective modes. Kills, kill streaks, wins, losses, and slow-mo action add to the player’s XP count, unlocking new classes, weapons, skills, modifiers, skins, cosmetic addons, and a whole lot more. By replacing AI with living, breathing humans, the Max Payne gameplay takes on a new life, rewarding sharp aims and unexpected slow-mo actions reminiscent of a bullet ballet.

To say that we’re impressed with Max Payne 3 is an understatement. Rockstar’s long-awaited follow-up does exactly what the numbered title suggests – it sticks to and improves upon the formula Remedy created all those years ago after pining for a videogame equivalent of The Matrix’s incredible bullet-time action. If you loved the originals you’ll love Max Payne 3, and with the numerous new single-player modes and the addition of multiplayer, the level of replayability is higher than ever before.

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Graphically, Max Payne 3 eschews the hyper-reality, bright, bold visuals of its peers for a far grittier, realistic look that apes the real world far more than any other game. Lighting and shader effects are grounded in reality, and though Max may shoot a few grenades and RPGs out of the air, Rockstar otherwise creates a believable, immersive world that comes closer to breaking the fourth wall than any future-generation technology demo seen to date. As touched upon, the removal of loading screens plays a major part in the immersion, though massive credit must also be given to the Euphoria NaturalMotion animation system that not only builds upon the procedurally generated animations of Grand Theft Auto IV, but also revolutionizes third-person shooter movement and action.

Conclusion

Rockstar has lavished love upon the PC version of Max Payne 3, sparing no expense to bring gamers a highly polished, supremely optimized version of their hit game that features an additional two dozen PC-exclusive graphical enhancements, super high quality audio, and textures four times the resolution of those seen on consoles. Add in native NVIDIA Surround support and the upcoming addition of 3D Vision and 3D Vision Surround support, and you’ve got yourself a true flagship PC game that pushes GPUs to the limit.

As our benchmarks show you’ll require a GTX 580 at minimum to max out every single setting and enable Rockstar’s particularly impressive, if demanding, DirectX 11-enhanced 4xMSAA anti-aliasing. At this level, the GTX 670 represents excellent value, featuring our latest technology and performance only a smidge behind the flagship GTX 680. For those on tighter budgets, the GTX 560 and GTX 560 Ti are great options, giving players a maximum quality, FXAA-anti aliased experience when paired with a similarly priced CPU.

Surround users wanting the best possible visual fidelity should look to the top-end GTX 690 or GTX 680s in SLI, and 3D Vision Surround users... well, they might want to raid the piggy bank, because we theorize that a three-way SLI GTX 680 or a Quad-SLI GTX 690 setup will be necessary for the absolute best experience. You could turn down the graphics settings, but what self-respecting PC gamer does that?!

Will you be getting Max Payne 3? How are you getting your PC in shape for the game? Let us know in the comments.