Autumn 2009 Graphics Card Upgrade Guide

Written by Harry Butler

October 1, 2009 | 11:59

Tags: #5870 #fastest-graphics-card #graphics-card #hd-5870 #new-ati-graphics-card #radeon #upgrade

Companies: #ati #bit-tech #nvidia

Crysis

Publisher: Electronic Arts

Even after almost two years since it's release Crysis will make your system cry - 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 16x 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 4xAA and 2,560 x 1,600 with 0xAA and 4xAA. By extensively testing using anti-aliasing in very high resolutions in conjunction to High quality, we'll be pushing even the bleeding edge hardware on test to the limit.

Autumn 2009 Graphics Card Upgrade Guide Crysis Autumn 2009 Graphics Card Upgrade Guide Crysis
Click to enlarge

Crysis

1,680 x 1,050 0xAA 16xAF, DirectX 10, High Quality

  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 1,792MB
  • ATI Radeon HD 5870 1GB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 285 1GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 275 896MB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 260-216 896MB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4890 1GB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB
  • Nvidia GeForce 8800GT 512MB
    • 73.0
    • 44.0
    • 56.0
    • 35.0
    • 51.0
    • 30.0
    • 47.0
    • 28.0
    • 44.0
    • 27.0
    • 40.0
    • 25.0
    • 36.0
    • 20.0
    • 32.0
    • 17.0
    • 26.0
    • 14.0
    • 24.0
    • 14.0
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

  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 1,792MB
  • ATI Radeon HD 5870 1GB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 285 1GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 275 896MB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 260-216 896MB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4890 1GB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB
  • Nvidia GeForce 8800GT 512MB
    • 62.0
    • 40.0
    • 47.0
    • 26.0
    • 45.0
    • 26.0
    • 41.0
    • 24.0
    • 37.0
    • 23.0
    • 34.0
    • 21.0
    • 31.0
    • 17.0
    • 28.0
    • 14.0
    • 21.0
    • 11.0
    • 10.0
    • 5.0
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
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB
  • ATI Radeon HD 5870 1GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 285 1GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 275 896MB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4890 1GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 260-216 896MB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB
  • Nvidia GeForce 8800GT 512MB
    • 61.0
    • 38.0
    • 48.0
    • 28.0
    • 47.0
    • 28.0
    • 38.0
    • 23.0
    • 36.0
    • 22.0
    • 33.0
    • 19.0
    • 33.0
    • 19.0
    • 29.0
    • 15.0
    • 23.0
    • 13.0
    • 20.0
    • 11.0
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Frames Per Second
  • Average
  • Minimum

Crysis

1,920 x 1,200 4xAA 16xAF, DirectX 10, High Quality

  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 1,792MB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB
  • ATI Radeon HD 5870 1GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 285 1GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 275 896MB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 260-216 896MB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4890 1GB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB
  • Nvidia GeForce 8800GT 512MB
    • 51.0
    • 32.0
    • 41.0
    • 24.0
    • 39.0
    • 21.0
    • 33.0
    • 20.0
    • 30.0
    • 18.0
    • 28.0
    • 17.0
    • 28.0
    • 16.0
    • 25.0
    • 14.0
    • 15.0
    • 8.0
    • 8.0
    • 3.0
0
10
20
30
40
50
Frames Per Second
  • Average
  • Minimum

Crysis

2,560 x 1,600 0xAA 16xAF, DirectX 10, High Quality

  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 1,792MB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB
  • ATI Radeon HD 5870 1GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 285 1GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 275 896MB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 260-216 896MB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4890 1GB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB
  • Nvidia GeForce 8800GT 512MB
    • 37.0
    • 22.0
    • 31.0
    • 17.0
    • 29.0
    • 16.0
    • 23.0
    • 13.0
    • 22.0
    • 12.0
    • 20.0
    • 11.0
    • 20.0
    • 10.0
    • 17.0
    • 9.0
    • 13.0
    • 7.0
    • 12.0
    • 6.0
0
10
20
30
40
Frames Per Second
  • Average
  • Minimum

Crysis

2,560 x 1,600 4xAA 16xAF, DirectX 10, High Quality

  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 1,792MB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB
  • ATI Radeon HD 5870 1GB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4890 1GB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 285 1GB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 275 896MB
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 260-216 896MB
  • ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB
  • Nvidia GeForce 8800GT 512MB
    • 29.0
    • 15.0
    • 27.0
    • 14.0
    • 24.0
    • 12.0
    • 17.0
    • 9.0
    • 15.0
    • 8.0
    • 13.0
    • 1.0
    • 12.0
    • 1.0
    • 6.0
    • 1.0
    • 3.0
    • 0.0
    • 1.0
    • 0.0
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
Frames Per Second
  • Average
  • Minimum

For analysis of these and all other results, please read the Results Analysis page.
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