Crysis Warhead question

[ohfour238]

i just built a new computer finally. i've read Crysis Warhead is THE game to test your system on apparently. with everything set to "enthusiast", max resolution, max AA, it was running about 18fps. after turning AA off, about 25. i don't really notice much of a difference with no AA so it's doable but i was wondering what would put me over the top, just crossfiring?

AMD Phenom II x4 965 3.4ghz
G.Skill Ripjaw 4gb DDR3 1600
HIS Radeon 5770 1gb 128-bit GDDR5
MSI 870A-G54
Creative X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion series
WD 1tb 7200rpm
OCZ Fatal1ty 550w
Windows 7 Home 64-bit

 

[BHetrick]

I thought I had read that Crysis is the pc killer and that Crysis Warhead was "dumbed-down", for lack of a better term, to ease up on pc's.

 

[Qbah]

Your graphics card. A HD5770, while being a decent card, is no speed demon. There are cards much faster available on the market.

As for Warhead being dumbed down in terms of graphics, it's Gamer and lower that runs a bit faster (nothing to write about though). And you can sometimes notice texture streaming. Enthusiast is as demanding as before (and looks as beautiful too! ).

As an example, I am getting 30FPS average on my setup at 1920x1080 all Enthusiast AAx4. My card is OCed @ 850/1150 and my CPU runs @ 3.2GHz. It's around as fast as running two HD5770s in CrossFire.

 

[ohfour238]

i'm not questioning, just trying to learn but you say you're running at 850/1150. i'm assuming you mean the GPU clock and memory clock? mine is 850/1200. so what about your card makes it so much faster than mine?

 

[AstroGuardian]

As an example, I am getting 30FPS average on my setup at 1920x1080 all Enthusiast AAx4. My card is OCed @ 850/1150 and my CPU runs @ 3.2GHz. It's around as fast as running two HD5770s in CrossFire.

Ahhh dude, i hate guys like you that lie about obvious things. There is no way your 5770 to be as fast as a couple of them in CF...

 

[Qbah]

Ahhh dude, i hate guys like you that lie about obvious things. There is no way your 5770 to be as fast as a couple of them in CF...

l2read? I have a HD5850. It's in my sig.

 

[ohfour238]

ok but my question is what about it makes it faster than mine? my 5770 comes stock as 850/1200 and now is overclocked to 870/1415. what other factors are there to look at when buying a card to know where it lands on the speed spectrum?

 

[Qbah]

ok but my question is what about it makes it faster than mine? my 5770 comes stock as 850/1200 and now is overclocked to 870/1415. what other factors are there to look at when buying a card to know where it lands on the speed spectrum?

Your HD5770 has 800 shaders and a 128-bit memory bus. Your memory is also clocked lower.

My HD5850 has 1440 shaders and a 256-bit memory bus. ALso a higher memory clock.

So I have almost twice as many shaders and more than double the memory bandwidth.

Adding a second card to CrossFire will net your probably ~70% more performance in most games. Though that number is game-dependent. Some scale better, some scale worse. Some don't support dual cards at all though (very few) and won't give you any performance increase at all.

How to recognize a card? In your case:

HD5770:

HD5xxx - generation
HDx7xx - mainstream market
HDxx7x - faster card in that segment

HD5850:

HD5xxx - generation
HDx8xx - performance market
HDxx5x - slower card in that segment

The fastest card right now is HD5970 (5th generation enthusiast market fastest card). It has two performance GPUs on one card so a total of 3200 shaders (4x your number), clocked at 725MHz.

And how to recognize? Ask first to be sure. Read reviews and see the performance a card brings.

EDIT: Well your memory is clocked higher, but still at 128-bit the card has a bit more than half the bandwidth of my OCed HD5850.

 

[ohfour238]

oh i see. thanks for the explanation Qbah.

 

[SpeedZealot369]

I never understood what all the hype around crysis was about anyway..

 

[ohfour238]

no i don't really get into the game itself very much but i was just checking to see how my computer stood up to the stress it can put on one.

 

[RavenSEAL]

I never understood what all the hype around crysis was about anyway..

...The graphics maybe?

 

[ohfour238]

ok well i think i'm gonna get a 5850 then. i can't really afford anything more than that though. so a 5850, with my system, SHOULD be able to run Crysis (and any other game for that matter) on max settings smoothly? 25fps+

 

[Qbah]

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/164?vs=172

Take a look and see if that's enough for you. Every other component in your PC is very modern and fast. Just one thing, what resolution do you play at? I recon 1920x1080 or 1920x1200?

However, I would advise you to post this question in Video Cards and Graphics. You'll probably get more people to chime in. Me? Since you're already running AMD stuff, I would grab a HD5850. I am VERY happy with the performance it offers. I run all my stuff at 1920x1080 maxed, AAx4 (that's 30+, usually 60). Except for Metro 2033 - that game doesn't run good on anything. Also, will you return the HD5770 or sell it?

 

[BHetrick]

As for Warhead being dumbed down in terms of graphics, it's Gamer and lower that runs a bit faster (nothing to write about though). And you can sometimes notice texture streaming. Enthusiast is as demanding as before (and looks as beautiful too! ).

Ah, all right.

And when I said dumbed-down, I meant only when compared to Crysis. I played Warhead awhile back and I know it's a beautiful looking game.

 

[ohfour238]

according to those benchmarks, for a single card, i think my best bet is to go with the 5850. the GTX 470's seem to require more power than the 5850's and i'm not about to upgrade my PSU as well if i don't have to. i'm looking at this one [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...881-_-Product]. they benchmarked a 725mhz/4000mhz and this one is 765/4500. my current PSU will be able to handle it as well i believe.

yes, i will sell my 5770. i've only been running it less than a week. interested? ha.

 

[Qbah]

according to those benchmarks, for a single card, i think my best bet is to go with the 5850. the GTX 470's seem to require more power than the 5850's and i'm not about to upgrade my PSU as well if i don't have to. i'm looking at this one [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...881-_-Product]. they benchmarked a 725mhz/4000mhz and this one is 765/4500. my current PSU will be able to handle it as well i believe.

yes, i will sell my 5770. i've only been running it less than a week. interested? ha.

That's the exact same card I have It's dead silent and I run it at 850 / 1150 without a single issue. And why did I ask if you will sell your current card? Cause if you wouldn't, going with a second HD5770 could be another option. But I personally don't like CrossFire or SLi, so going with a single stronger card is the way I prefer.

 

[BHetrick]

I was just reading how the next gen's are going to be released real soon (a matter of weeks/days). So it'd probably be worth waiting just a touch longer as all the older generations should see a price drop, right?

 

[Qbah]

I was just reading how the next gen's are going to be released real soon (a matter of weeks/days). So it'd probably be worth waiting just a touch longer as all the older generations should see a price drop, right?

I totally forgot about the HD6xxx series! Yes, that's the best way to proceed. Wait it out a bit!

 

[ohfour238]

hmm i'm not the most patient person but i'll give it some time. hopefully it will be a significant drop. do you have a rough estimate on how much it could drop?

 

[Dranoche]

Most Crysis benchmarks use Gamer settings with Enthusiast shaders. Setting everything to Enthusiast is why the numbers aren't what you expect. The shader setting has one of the largest effects on visual quality, with notable differences between the different setting options. Post processing too. You'll take a noticeable performance hit without any visual improvement when bumping most of the other settings from Gamer to Enthusiast. Maxing out AA doesn't help either.

With my 4890 and Q6600 (both OC), I usually ran at 1680x1050, Gamer settings with Enthusiast shaders and post processing, and 2xAA (might have been running 4x in Warhead, can't remember). Depending on the situation I usually ended up with 25-40 fps. If I remember correctly, at launch the 5770 was somewhat comparable to the 4890, though usually lacking a little bit. I'm sure driver updates and improvements may have helped a little since, but 5770 Crysis performance didn't seem odd or broken before, so it should still be similar. Like some people have already shown, you really need another 5770, or upgrade to 5850 or better to get better framerates with maxed settings.

 

[ohfour238]

right, yeah i'm definitely getting a new card. as i said a few posts up, probably gonna get that 5850 i linked to, the one Qbah has. i have to take a look at my financial situation, i might be able to do better but for now, i'm at least getting that.

 

[ohfour238]

ok well i've come to a decision. i consulted my friend (aka the enabler) and she said if i'm gonna get something new already, i might as well get what i really want. so that, along with a 10,000 credit card limit and low interest rate, i'm gonna suck it up and get a 5970. on NewEgg, a few (mostly from HIS) have issues so i'm getting this one [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16814131324]. since this card needs at least 650w, i'll also be getting the 750w version of my power supply which has the 6 and 8 pin PCI express connectors the card needs. sound good?

 

[AstroGuardian]

l2read? I have a HD5850. It's in my sig.

Oh.. sorry mate... My bad

 

[ohfour238]

i ended up getting the Sapphire HD5970, the 2 gig. PSU should be here tomorrow, card thursday. then i'll see what it can do.