Crysis Warhead performance in-depth

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Roughly this time last year Crytek released the highly anticipated first-person shooter Crysis exclusively for the PC. Since then the game has been used as the prime benchmark for high-end graphics cards, with only a handful of them being able to conquer the title, delivering great frame rates using high quality settings.

In the meantime, Crytek has been working hard on a successor of the title called “Crysis Warhead”. This new version of the game updates and refines the gameplay through a parallel story that follows Sergeant Michael "Psycho" Sykes. Crysis Warhead features new fully customizable weapons, vehicles, and enemies, along with new multiplayer content.

Our take on this article will be all about hardware performance considering it is based on an enhanced version of the CryEngine 2. Crytek claims this optimized version allows for enhanced performance. And so today we plan to find out exactly how Crysis Warhead performs using a range of previous and current generation graphics cards.

View: Crysis Warhead performance in-depth @ TechSpot

(6 replies) #1 Biren on 23 Sep 2008 - 23:25

I wish they would've thrown some non current gen cards (like my 7900gs) in the mix for comparison. Guess I'll just have to wait until I get my 9800GTX tomorrow to see how it runs with that

#1.1 Airlink on 24 Sep 2008 - 02:11

Um... the original Crysis is barely playable with a pair of 8800GTX in SLI... what makes you think a sinlge 7900 GS could run the game at all? Enjoy high-tech slideshows, do you?

#1.2 Xerxes on 24 Sep 2008 - 02:48

It all depends on what you class as "playable". I play Crysis on a 256Mb 8600GTS and it's quite playable, even on medium/low settings it still looks very good. However, all does go to hell once you get to the snow level..then it's slide show central

I'd say it *should* run fine on medium maybe even high with that card depending on what resolution you run the game at, the 9800GTX obviously will do much better. Once again it will still come down to what you deem as "playable". To some people "unplayable" is when a game drops below 60fps! or when you can't run it acceptable at the native resolution of your monitor etc, it all depends.

I'm looking forward to the performance improvements that Warhead will bring, just have to wait for it to be released in Australia...still I suppose I should be grateful it's releasing in Australia at all

#1.3 spacer on 24 Sep 2008 - 12:01

(Airlink said @ #1.1)

What the hell are you talking about? If my single 8800GT can run Crysis on its "Very High" settings at 1680x1050 without any slow down, then maybe your two 8800GTXs aren't your bottleneck.

#1.4 +Odom on 24 Sep 2008 - 12:18

I ran the previous Crysis on a 8800GTS 680MB with details in very high and no AA/AF at 1920x1200 and it was "playable" just fine. By "playable" I mean no hickups nor freezes, it just ran fluidly.

#1.5 Swordnyx on 24 Sep 2008 - 15:18

(spacer said @ #1.3)

+1 I have an 8800GT and I can run it on Very High too.

It runs at about 28FPS with DX10, but if I put it on High and go to DX9, its 33-34 FPS. And lowering the resolution to 1440x990 helps ALOT and it still looks crisp. I only do that during the snow levels though.

#1.6 solardog on 24 Sep 2008 - 16:03

What the crap are you talking about? I'm running a single BFG 8800GTS 512oc and Crysis runs great at 1680x1050 with settings at high to very high (a couple settings I crank down to high mainly because I just don't see a big dif in quality so I crank those down a notch). My cpu is a Core2Quad. 3 gigs ram. Vista Home Premium 32bit.

#2 darkpuma on 24 Sep 2008 - 02:01

lol they definetly labeled a few of those pictures wrong....

http://www.techspot.com/articles-info/118/...husiast_02T.jpg
http://www.techspot.com/articles-info/118/...nstream_02T.jpg

#3 The Tjalian on 24 Sep 2008 - 07:27

Wow, even the GTX 280 couldn't handle this game at a full 60 FPS. It'd be interesting to see the average framerates when using 2 of every card SLI'd, though.

(2 replies) #4 Stup0t on 24 Sep 2008 - 21:54

I run a quad core with a ati 4870 and crysis runs fine at 1280x1024 on max detail.... so not sure what you lot are running it at, but on my rig it plays like a dream.... So does warhead.

#4.1 Skynetfuture on 24 Sep 2008 - 23:09

lol dreams @ 1280X1024

it look like a crap in that res. imo

@1600X1050 looks way better

w8ing for next gen geforce 3xx GTX

#4.2 RPDL on 25 Sep 2008 - 02:58

While I don't think 1280X1024 looks like crap, its true you could play it at a way higer resolution. I can play on Max Graphics (4X AA) at 1600x1200) with a Radeon 4850.

(2 replies) #5 DigitalDude on 25 Sep 2008 - 08:16

Doubt I could even play the original that good on the best computer I got which is a hp dv9000t, let alone this one and prob will be forever til I actually have something that could. Oh well. Are these games actually rated good or are they just mostly benchmarkers as what I have been seeing... ?

#5.1 spacer on 25 Sep 2008 - 12:03

Crysis and Crysis Warhead are actually very good games and not just benchmarks. The reason people make fun of Crysis is because when the game came out it made all but the super high-end computers poop in their pants (cases?). Honestly, behind the Half-Life and CoD series, Crysis is one of my favorite shooters of all time.

#5.2 solardog on 25 Sep 2008 - 21:04

IMO Crysis falls apart completely toward the end. The last 1/4 or so. Confronting the enemy in its lair was just not what I was hoping for. That's just me tho, overall it was great. Haven't checked out warhead yet.

(1 reply) #6 3dfxman on 26 Sep 2008 - 05:06

Man i love how gaming companies think that everyone can afford to pay like $2k for a gaming pc to run their games at best, its redicilious.

#6.1 Xerxes on 26 Sep 2008 - 12:53

and in the case of Crytek, a time machine as well!

(to go into the future to buy a PC that can actually handle the game

)

(1 reply) #7 Dead'Soul on 26 Sep 2008 - 13:01

Hey, not everybody has a heavy wallet to buy these graphic cards...

I am playing Crysis on Geforce 8400M GS...

#7.1 solardog on 26 Sep 2008 - 16:10

Graphic cards are incredibly cheap right now. You can get a 8800GTX712 for $130 the whole 8800 line is right around that price.

#8 WAR-DOG on 28 Sep 2008 - 15:02

Is is only me, or does Warhead run better than the first part of crysis?

#9 ASKnASK on 30 Sep 2008 - 17:36

I finished Warhead a day after its release.
Played it on a 4850 @ Enthusiast Settings.

It looked GREAT. OK framerates.

#10 Diablous on 06 Oct 2008 - 11:36

I'm playing on My Clevo 570RU,

T9300
4Gig DDR800
8800GTX M 1024mb

on 1440x990 DX10, and it is smooth throughout

gonna try DX9 tonight, see if i can get it any faster, tbh I think DX10 is overrated as the difference is negligable, and pulls the performance down,.

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