Upgrade for playing Crysis

[Speedo]

I'm thinking of starting playing Crysis, but I just have a 6600GT and I expect I will have to put detail to lowest and run at very low resolution. I thought I might want to upgrade my videocard, but it cant be very expensive. I was thinking something in the midrange. After some searching, it seems nVidia doesnt have much in the lower midrange right now? 8600GT/GTS seems like a too small improvement... Any recommendations? Should I forget about any DX9 cards, like the X1950Pro?

 

[lament]

what are your other system specs?

if you have an LCD, what's the native resolution?

also, Crysis shouldn't be the measure of what you get. It's a beast that no system can tame right now.

 

[Extelleron]

As lament said, it would be helpful to know your other system specs.

Also, are you AGP or PCI-E? If you are still on AGP, you will be limiting your options greatly.

If you're willing to spend around $180, the AMD HD 3850 is probably your best option. For $50 more though, you could buy an HD 3870 or an 8800GT (at Best Buy if you can find one, otherwise it is closer to $300).

 

[Speedo]

Oh, sorry...

Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe, A64 3200+ @2.5GHz, 1GB Ram, Nokia 446xPro CRT monitor running the desktop at 1600x1200. Since I have a CRT I don't have to worry about native resolutions. I guess that if I can run Crysis at atleast 1024x768 with a little AA and hopefully a bit of eyecandy turned on, I will be satisfied.

The 8800GT looks very nice, but I feel it's a but above what I can afford right now. Maybe the prices will drop pretty soon?

I dont play games much. One of the few games in the past recent gears I really enjoyed was Farcry. I guess Crysis would be the only game I'd run on this system...

 

[kenny0813]

I personally have an x1950pro .. and i'd be glad to even hit 15fps on med settings lol. . .
but that was with stock 2.4ghz e6600 and stock gpu settings

right now i've cranked it up to 3.0ghz with 621/736 on my x1950. . but i've yet to test out the crysis demo with these settings

if you want to play crysis, i'd say get either the new 3800 series or the 8800gt, whichever works for you

 

[shabby]

You'll need another gig of memory, the cpu is average at best. Something faster would help.

 

[lament]

you're definitely going to need another 1GB of RAM, but it's cheap.

as for the card, if you can swing the $250-$275, I'd go with the 8800GT.

on my E6850 @ 3GHz and my 8800GTS 320 (which is slightly slower than the new 8800GT, sadly), I was getting 15FPS at 1680x1050 and all settings on high, 2xAA which isn't tolerable for me.

but with every other game in the world, my setup kills it.. it's either Nvidia's drivers for Crysis or the game just isn't optimized yet (this was the SP and MP demos) and it's not fun to play. I won't be buying the game until it becomes a budget title. by then they should have the crappy performance worked out.

also, I don't expect the 8800GT to drop in price for a while. The online retailers are price gouging right now, so you're paying a premium above MSRP currently - if and when you can find one.

Best Buy had the slightly OC'd BFG 8800GT for $249 starting today, but that was rare.. and sold out instantly.

 

[bryanW1995]

outpost had 3870 for 209 AR today, though that is "pre-order". newegg has it for 225 shipped but they've been oos for a couple days, too. 3850 is 185 and available at many places.

I was trying to be clever just now so I decided to run crysis demo on my rig. I had an x1950xt and bought a 3870. I sold the x1950xt already and have shipped it, so I'm using my 6600gt until 3870 arrives (looks like weds). I got 21.3 fps in crysis demo at 1440x900 and all med, no aa/af with x1950xt, but I just ran the exact same settings only low instead of med and got 35.5 fps with the 6600gt! I got smart and went to med...bad move...currently getting 6.31 avg fps on first loop...this is gonna take forever...

uh oh, looks like it is gonna stay over 7 fps on loop 1... this is gonna be good. Maybe there isn't a conspiracy after all...

edit: never mind, got 6.54 fps at 1440x900 all med. hopefully the 3870 will be an upgrade over both this and x1950xt

 

[Modular]

You should upgrade, but Crysis is playable on a 6600gt on all low settings (except sound if you have an Xfi) and lower resolutions with no AA.

I have a P4 2.8
1.5GB RAM
6600gt @ 570/1000 (AGP)

I'd say I average 20 fps with this setup at 1228x768 resolution. It looks like FarCry on all low settings.

 

[bryanW1995]

clearly there is a tremendous difference between low and medium settings. I'm hoping I can go with some combo of very high/high when the 3870 shows up.

 

[Insomniator]

IMO Crysis looks way worse than Farcry when on all low settings.. I have a 3500+, 2 gigs and a 6600gt and i got maybe 20fps
on all low 640x480.. looks like garbage honestly and still isn't really playable. I'd rather play Farcry at med-high settings on a 6600gt.

 

[bsix]

Wait 2 weeks for 8800GT 256MB, (if you can't afford 512MB) or go with 3870. Add 1 GB ram and replace chip with an X2 3600/4200 from Newegg while they still have stock.

 

[AzN]

Originally posted by: Speedo
I'm thinking of starting playing Crysis, but I just have a 6600GT and I expect I will have to put detail to lowest and run at very low resolution. I thought I might want to upgrade my videocard, but it cant be very expensive. I was thinking something in the midrange. After some searching, it seems nVidia doesnt have much in the lower midrange right now? 8600GT/GTS seems like a too small improvement... Any recommendations? Should I forget about any DX9 cards, like the X1950Pro?

Compared to your 6600gt it's a vast improvement. Probably like 3x the performance.

 

[AzN]

Originally posted by: Modular
You should upgrade, but Crysis is playable on a 6600gt on all low settings (except sound if you have an Xfi) and lower resolutions with no AA.

I have a P4 2.8
1.5GB RAM
6600gt @ 570/1000 (AGP)

I'd say I average 20 fps with this setup at 1228x768 resolution. It looks like FarCry on all low settings.

Did you play the ice and dock level yet? Those levels are at the end of the game. I have much better system than yours and I barely got by everything on low settings fighting the last alien battle. I suspect your system couldn't handle it even at the lowest resolutions.

I average 25fps @ 1280x1024 medium settings on the island but on those 2 levels I can not. It's a slide show.

 

[AzN]

Originally posted by: Insomniator
IMO Crysis looks way worse than Farcry when on all low settings.. I have a 3500+, 2 gigs and a 6600gt and i got maybe 20fps
on all low 640x480.. looks like garbage honestly and still isn't really playable. I'd rather play Farcry at med-high settings on a 6600gt.

Who wants to play 640x480? That is not good. IMO Crysis on low looks far superior than FarCry at the highest settings if it's the same resolution.

 

[Speedo]

Originally posted by: bsix
Wait 2 weeks for 8800GT 256MB, (if you can't afford 512MB).

Very good advice. Didn't know a 256MB version was on its way.

 

[Speedo]

How big of a difference is there between 3850, 3870 and 8800GT? Only 8800GT is a DX10 part?

 

[AzN]

3850, 3870, are dx10.1

8800gt is dx10

8800gt is faster than 3870 in crysis but not by much.

3850 takes quite bit of lag because it's 256mb.

 

[Speedo]

Thanx for the info. Would the 3850 be a worthy budget upgrade from a 6600GT?

 

[CrystalBay]

Yes, it would be a heckaff an upgrade.

 

[AzN]

about 6x faster.

 

[SickBeast]

Originally posted by: Speedo
Thanx for the info. Would the 3850 be a worthy budget upgrade from a 6600GT?

Make sure you get one with 512mb and it will be. :light:

Most newer games need more than 256mb of ram.

 

[daveybrat]

The ATI 3850 256MB video card will be around 5-6 times faster than the 6600GT video card you have now and only $179. Nvidia currently has nothing equivalent in that price range until the 8800GT 256MB version is released. So my advice is to get the 3850 now or wait for the 8800GT 256MB version.

 

[SonicIce]

It still looks pretty good on low. I have the minimum spec pc (2800+, 1GB ram, 6800 GT), and it plays at over 45fps average. So if you just got a new video card then you could play it.

 

[Speedo]

Okey, I've tried Crysis on my current system now. It runs, but it doesn't look as nice as it should with all set to low .

I'm thinking of upgrading my whole system now. Some comments here would be much appreciated. I've been going with Asus motherboard the last qouple of systems, and feel like I would like to continue.

What about the Asus P5KC? Seems like a really nice mobo, atleast when looking at the specs. It has 1394 which I need and also has support for both DDR2 and DDR3. Anyone know if this board is a good overclocker?

Im not sure which CPU to go for. If I'd like to overclock, should I stay away from 1333FSB CPU's like the E6550? How much is the 4MB cache over 2MB? Maybe I should go for the E4500 which is cheaper and FSB800, and overclock it to 1333FSB?