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 DirectX 10 mode 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.
Click to enlarge
Crysis
1,280 x 1,024 0xAA 16xAF, DirectX 10, High Quality
Gainward Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 1,792MB
Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 1,792MB
ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB
Nvidia GeForce GTX 285 1GB
Nvidia GeForce GTX 275 896MB
Sapphire Radeon HD 4890 1GB Atomic
ATI Radeon HD 4890 1GB
88.6
50.0
87.9
49.0
59.5
34.0
56.7
33.0
52.6
31.0
51.1
28.0
44.9
24.0
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
Frames Per Second
Average
Minimum
Crysis
1,280 x 1,024 4xAA 16xAF, DirectX 10, High Quality
Gainward Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 1,792MB
Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 1,792MB
ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB
Nvidia GeForce GTX 285 1GB
Nvidia GeForce GTX 275 896MB
Sapphire Radeon HD 4890 1GB Atomic
ATI Radeon HD 4890 1GB
75.3
48.0
73.8
46.0
53.1
29.0
49.2
29.0
45.4
27.0
42.4
22.0
38.1
19.0
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Frames Per Second
Average
Minimum
Crysis
1,680 x 1,050 0xAA 16xAF, DirectX 10, High Quality
Gainward Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 1,792MB
Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 1,792MB
ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB
Nvidia GeForce GTX 285 1GB
Nvidia GeForce GTX 275 896MB
Sapphire Radeon HD 4890 1GB Atomic
ATI Radeon HD 4890 1GB
73.9
46.0
73.5
47.0
51.4
30.0
46.4
29.0
43.4
26.0
41.3
23.0
36.3
20.0
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Frames Per Second
Average
Minimum
Crysis
1,680 x 1,050 4xAA 16xAF, DirectX 10, High Quality
Gainward Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 1,792MB
Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 1,792MB
ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB
Nvidia GeForce GTX 285 1GB
Nvidia GeForce GTX 275 896MB
Sapphire Radeon HD 4890 1GB Atomic
ATI Radeon HD 4890 1GB
62.3
39.0
59.7
38.0
44.0
25.0
39.7
24.0
36.9
23.0
34.5
19.0
31.0
17.0
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Frames Per Second
Average
Minimum
Crysis
1,920 x 1,200 0xAA 16xAF, DirectX 10, High Quality
Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 1,792MB
Gainward Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 1,792MB
ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB
Nvidia GeForce GTX 285 1GB
Sapphire Radeon HD 4890 1GB Atomic
Nvidia GeForce GTX 275 896MB
ATI Radeon HD 4890 1GB
60.7
38.0
60.3
37.0
47.0
28.0
38.4
23.0
37.0
21.0
36.0
22.0
32.6
19.0
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Frames Per Second
Average
Minimum
Crysis
1,920 x 1,200 2xAA 16xAF, DirectX 10, High Quality
Gainward Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 1,792MB
Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 1,792MB
ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB
Nvidia GeForce GTX 285 1GB
Sapphire Radeon HD 4890 1GB Atomic
Nvidia GeForce GTX 275 896MB
ATI Radeon HD 4890 1GB
54.3
34.0
53.3
32.0
44.1
27.0
35.0
21.0
34.0
20.0
32.1
20.0
30.3
18.0
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Frames Per Second
Average
Minimum
Crysis
2,560 x 1,600 0xAA 16xAF, DirectX 10, High Quality
Gainward Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 1,792MB
Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 1,792MB
ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB
Nvidia GeForce GTX 285 1GB
Sapphire Radeon HD 4890 1GB Atomic
Nvidia GeForce GTX 275 896MB
ATI Radeon HD 4890 1GB
37.8
22.0
37.7
22.0
30.1
17.0
23.1
13.0
22.2
12.0
22.1
12.0
19.6
10.0
0
10
20
30
40
Frames Per Second
Average
Minimum
Crysis
2,560 x 1,600 2xAA 16xAF, DirectX 10, High Quality
Gainward Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 1,792MB
Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 1,792MB
ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB
Nvidia GeForce GTX 285 1GB
Sapphire Radeon HD 4890 1GB Atomic
Nvidia GeForce GTX 275 896MB
ATI Radeon HD 4890 1GB
32.8
20.0
31.5
19.0
27.9
15.0
20.9
11.0
20.5
11.0
19.3
10.0
18.2
10.0
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Frames Per Second
Average
Minimum
Crysis is traditionally a game where Nvidia has the edge, and that's certainly still the case with the GTX 295 dominating the competing dual GPU Radeon HD 4870 X2 at every resolution and AA setting. It's only at the very highest resolutions and AA settings that the HD 4870 X2 is able to close the gap, and even then the GTX 295 still holds a clear lead. However, there's no significant difference in performance between the original GTX 295 and the revised single PCB version.