What can we say about this game that hasn’t been said already? Crysis was probably the most anticipated game on the PC last year and was released on November 16th 2007.
Crysis is seen by many as the poster boy for DirectX 10 and it will make your system cry, quite literally – it’s a monster! It doesn’t come as much of a surprise then, that the graphics are something special – they’re above and beyond anything we’ve ever seen in a PC game.
We tested the game using the 64-bit executable under both DirectX 9.0 and DirectX 10 with the 1.21 patch applied. We used a custom timedemo recorded from the Laws of Nature level which is more representative of gameplay than the built-in benchmark that renders things much faster than you're going to experience in game. We found that around 30-33 fps in our custom timedemo was sufficient enough to obtain a playable frame rate through the game. It's a little different to other games in that the low frame rates still appear to be quite smooth.
For our testing, we set all quality details to High and forced 8x anisotropic filtering in the driver menu as there is currently no support for it in game. We tested at 1,280 x 1,024, using 0x, 2x and 4x anti-aliasing, 1,680 x 1,050 using 0x and 4x anti-aliasing and 1,920 x 1,200 using 0x and 2xAA. By extensively testing using anti-aliasing in very high resolutions, we'll be pushing even the bleeding edge hardware on test to the limit.
Crysis
1280x1024, 0xAA, 8xAF, DX9, High Detail
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2
ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2
Nvidia GeForce GTX 280
Nvidia Geforce 9800 GX2
ATI Radeon HD 4870
Nvidia GeForce GTX 260
ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2
Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX+
Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX
ATI Radeon HD 4850
Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT
ATI Radeon HD 3870
79.9
42.0
79.2
43.0
54.6
36.0
54.5
32.0
46.7
26.0
45.0
29.0
44.0
24.0
40.0
26.0
36.9
24.0
36.9
22.0
31.0
17.0
24.5
15.0
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Frames Per Second
Average
Minimum
Crysis
1280x1024, 2xAA, 8xAF, DX9, High Detail
ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2
Nvidia GeForce GTX 280
Nvidia Geforce 9800 GX2
Nvidia GeForce GTX 260
ATI Radeon HD 4870
Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX+
ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2
Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX
ATI Radeon HD 4850
Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT
ATI Radeon HD 3870
68.3
38.0
68.2
39.0
50.0
33.0
48.8
29.0
41.1
27.0
39.0
22.0
33.8
21.0
33.6
19.0
31.4
18.0
29.8
19.0
26.8
15.0
18.3
11.0
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Frames Per Second
Average
Minimum
Crysis
1280x1024, 4xAA, 8xAF, DX9, High Detail
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2
ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2
Nvidia GeForce GTX 280
Nvidia Geforce 9800 GX2
Nvidia GeForce GTX 260
ATI Radeon HD 4870
ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2
Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX+
ATI Radeon HD 4850
Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX
Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT
ATI Radeon HD 3870
66.1
40.0
65.6
38.0
47.3
32.0
42.5
25.0
38.8
26.0
37.8
21.0
29.6
14.0
29.1
18.0
28.5
17.0
28.3
17.0
23.5
12.0
18.3
10.0
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Frames Per Second
Average
Minimum
Crysis
1680x1050, 0xAA, 8xAF, DX9, High Detail
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2
ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2
Nvidia Geforce 9800 GX2
Nvidia GeForce GTX 280
ATI Radeon HD 4870
Nvidia GeForce GTX 260
Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX+
ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2
Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX
ATI Radeon HD 4850
Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT
ATI Radeon HD 3870
60.0
36.0
59.4
36.0
45.6
27.0
43.8
31.0
37.4
22.0
36.0
24.0
32.3
21.0
31.3
19.0
29.7
20.0
29.6
19.0
25.0
15.0
19.3
12.0
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Frames Per Second
Average
Minimum
Crysis
1680x1050, 4xAA, 8xAF, DX9, High Detail
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2
ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2
Nvidia GeForce GTX 280
Nvidia GeForce GTX 260
ATI Radeon HD 4870
Nvidia Geforce 9800 GX2
ATI Radeon HD 4850
ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2
Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX
Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX+
Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT
ATI Radeon HD 3870
49.1
32.0
48.3
30.0
38.0
27.0
30.9
22.0
29.4
16.0
23.3
11.0
22.2
14.0
20.6
11.0
19.6
10.0
19.1
10.0
17.1
9.0
14.6
8.0
0
10
20
30
40
50
Frames Per Second
Average
Minimum
Crysis
1920x1200, 0xAA, 8xAF, DX9, High Detail
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2
ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2
Nvidia GeForce GTX 280
Nvidia Geforce 9800 GX2
ATI Radeon HD 4870
Nvidia GeForce GTX 260
Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX+
ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2
Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX
ATI Radeon HD 4850
Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT
ATI Radeon HD 3870
40.1
22.0
39.7
24.0
35.7
25.0
32.1
27.0
30.1
17.0
29.0
19.0
25.9
16.0
25.1
12.0
23.8
15.0
23.7
15.0
20.0
12.0
15.3
9.0
0
10
20
30
40
Frames Per Second
Average
Minimum
Crysis
1920x1200, 2xAA, 8xAF, DX9, High Detail
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2
ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2
Nvidia GeForce GTX 280
Nvidia Geforce 9800 GX2
Nvidia GeForce GTX 260
ATI Radeon HD 4870
ATI Radeon HD 4850
Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX+
ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2
Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX
Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT
ATI Radeon HD 3870
39.5
24.0
38.7
23.0
32.5
23.0
30.9
20.0
26.3
18.0
24.0
15.0
18.4
12.0
18.3
9.0
18.2
9.0
17.5
10.0
15.7
8.0
11.3
7.0
0
10
20
30
40
Frames Per Second
Average
Minimum
Using the DX9 path in Crysis, the 4870 X2 again demonstrates it's colossal performance advantage in correctly driver supported games, with a significant frame rate advantage right across the resolution and anti-aliasing spectrum.