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 27-33 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.
We set all of the in-game 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 4xAA, 1,920 x 1,200 using 0x and 2xAA and 2,560 x 1,600 with 0xAA and 2xAA. By extensively testing using anti-aliasing in very high resolutions in conjunction to Very High quality, we'll be pushing even the bleeding edge hardware on test to the limit.
Crysis
1,280 x 1,024 0xAA 16xAF, DirectX 9, High Quality
Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 1,792MB Quad SLI
ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB CrossFireX
Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 1GB SLI
Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 1,792MB
Nvidia GeForce GTX 260-216 896MB SLI
ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB CrossFire
ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB
Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 1GB
Nvidia GeForce GTX 260-216 896MB
ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB
ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB
131.8
34.0
124.7
47.0
99.8
59.0
92.0
46.0
88.6
54.0
78.7
44.0
76.5
40.0
54.1
32.0
47.4
27.0
42.8
24.0
42.7
24.0
0
25
50
75
100
125
150
Frames Per Second
Average
Minimum
Crysis
1,280 x 1,024 4xAA 16xAF, DirectX 9, High Quality
Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 1,792MB Quad SLI
ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB CrossFireX
Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 1GB SLI
Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 1,792MB
Nvidia GeForce GTX 260-216 896MB SLI
ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB CrossFire
ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB
Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 1GB
Nvidia GeForce GTX 260-216 896MB
ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB
ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB
125.1
30.0
110.4
35.0
86.7
53.0
77.7
41.0
75.0
41.0
66.0
35.0
63.9
35.0
46.5
28.0
40.2
23.0
35.2
20.0
34.9
20.0
0
25
50
75
100
125
Frames Per Second
Average
Minimum
Crysis
1,680 x 1,050 0xAA 16xAF, DirectX 9, High Quality
Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 1,792MB Quad SLI
ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB CrossFireX
Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 1GB SLI
Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 1,792MB
Nvidia GeForce GTX 260-216 896MB SLI
ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB CrossFire
ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB
Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 1GB
Nvidia GeForce GTX 260-216 896MB
ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB
ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB
90.4
27.0
84.4
30.0
76.2
41.0
72.1
39.0
67.2
36.0
58.8
32.0
57.2
31.0
43.0
28.0
37.8
23.0
34.8
20.0
34.4
19.0
0
25
50
75
100
Frames Per Second
Average
Minimum
Crysis
1,680 x 1,050 4xAA 16xAF, DirectX 9, High Quality
Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 1,792MB Quad SLI
ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB CrossFireX
Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 1GB SLI
Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 1,792MB
Nvidia GeForce GTX 260-216 896MB SLI
ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB CrossFire
ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB
Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 1GB
Nvidia GeForce GTX 260-216 896MB
ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB
ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB
83.1
25.0
73.6
27.0
66.1
36.0
60.6
33.0
57.6
33.0
49.5
28.0
48.1
28.0
37.2
24.0
32.1
20.0
28.2
17.0
26.2
13.0
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
Frames Per Second
Average
Minimum
Crysis
1,920 x 1,200 0xAA 16xAF, DirectX 9, High Quality
Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 1,792MB Quad SLI
ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB CrossFireX
Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 1GB SLI
Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 1,792MB
Nvidia GeForce GTX 260-216 896MB SLI
ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB CrossFire
ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB
Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 1GB
Nvidia GeForce GTX 260-216 896MB
ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB
ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB
71.4
24.0
70.5
24.0
62.1
36.0
56.9
32.0
54.3
32.0
48.3
26.0
47.3
25.0
35.3
22.0
30.8
19.0
28.2
17.0
28.1
15.0
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Frames Per Second
Average
Minimum
Crysis
1,920 x 1,200 2xAA 16xAF, DirectX 9, High Quality
Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 1,792MB Quad SLI
ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB CrossFireX
Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 1GB SLI
Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 1,792MB
Nvidia GeForce GTX 260-216 896MB SLI
ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB CrossFire
ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB
Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 1GB
Nvidia GeForce GTX 260-216 896MB
ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB
ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB
66.9
20.0
61.5
22.0
56.9
34.0
50.9
30.0
49.2
30.0
41.6
23.0
40.5
22.0
32.1
20.0
27.6
17.0
23.6
14.0
22.1
12.0
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Frames Per Second
Average
Minimum
Crysis
2,560 x 1,600 0xAA 16xAF, DirectX 9, High Quality
Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 1,792MB Quad SLI
ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB CrossFireX
Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 1GB SLI
Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 1,792MB
Nvidia GeForce GTX 260-216 896MB SLI
ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB CrossFire
ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB
Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 1GB
Nvidia GeForce GTX 260-216 896MB
ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB
ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB
43.6
15.0
40.9
9.0
39.6
21.0
36.2
18.0
34.3
18.0
28.5
11.0
28.1
10.0
21.7
11.0
18.7
10.0
17.1
9.0
16.8
9.0
0
10
20
30
40
Frames Per Second
Average
Minimum
Crysis
2,560 x 1,600 2xAA 16xAF, DirectX 9, High Quality
Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 1,792MB Quad SLI
Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 1GB SLI
ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB CrossFireX
Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 1,792MB
Nvidia GeForce GTX 260-216 896MB SLI
ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB CrossFire
ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB
Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 1GB
Nvidia GeForce GTX 260-216 896MB
ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB
ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB
42.1
14.0
35.6
19.0
35.2
9.0
31.6
16.0
30.4
16.0
24.4
9.0
23.9
9.0
19.4
10.0
16.4
9.0
14.0
8.0
4.2
0.0
0
10
20
30
40
Frames Per Second
Average
Minimum
Switching to Crysis' DirectX 9 mode reveals much the same story, with the GeForce GTX 295 able to significantly outperform the HD 4870 X2 in every single test and dual GeForce GTX 295s comfortably outperforming dual 4870 X2s under every resolution and anti-aliasing setting - a very impressive result indeed.