Building a Crysis PC, Part 1

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Sorry, I've been in a post-World Series state of drunken euphoria....

Well, it looks like we're leaning toward a Vista 64 bit system with SLI and at least a dual core platform. We wanted to keep the cost down, but considering 1) frame rate results for the beta/demo, and 2) the fact that we already have core 2 duo stystems with XP or Vista 32 bit versions and single 8800 cards here in the lab, we might as well build something that's a little different and more powerful.

It seems like most folks are leaning toward Intel/Nvidia. Any thoughts on going with an AMD/ATI platform, especially considering some of the Nvidia driver issues?

Thanks for all the feedback, guys. It's definitely helped. Stay tuned for more Crysis stuff this week....

Go Sox.
 
I hope you are going to test quad v.s. dual core (i.e. does anyone know for FACT that Crysis will take advantage of a quad core?) Also XP with DX9 v.s. Vista DX10.

Keith

P.S. I'm mainly posting this so I can get Email notification of updates to this thread. Does anyone know how to do that without posting?
 
WHEN is Part 2 coming out ?!?.. are we waiting for the game to come out or for the Q9850 cpus to come out with X48 motherboards?..
...
Crikey..

EDIT : Sorry just read Robs post.. you have to put a QUAD in the solution , because Cyril from Crytek said Quads run much better.. lol .. and he is Intels lapdog as well ..
 
well the new GT's are out from NVIDIA... they should be able to also post some impressive yet cost effective performance with SLI for crysis.
 
I'm not having any Nvidia driver problems atm with 169.04. I did have some menu probs with 169.01 but it's fixed now. I think for Crysis atleast, the Nvidia drivers will be in a better state for it than ATI.

EDIT: For price wise I'd definatly go with SLI 8800 GT's! Seems like the only way to go.
 



I'm going to try and run it on my 32" LCD HD TV. 😀
 
Rob, I know that Crytek said that 64bit would be 10-15% faster than 32bit per core, but I ran both the cpu and gpu benchmarks in both their 32bit and 64bit versions that came with the single player demo and it is sadly but abundently clear that the 64bit version is actually running slower! Before you tell people that you recommend vista64 you should test this for yourself...and then call out EA and Crytek on it!

my system: q6600 @ 3.6ghz, p5k deluxe, 2gig ram, 2900pro OCed
 
This could be tons of work and has nothing to do with hardware really but could you guys go and pick a scene and set all the settings at very high then pick one setting, ie: shadows, and go from very high all the way down to low and we can see how each setting affects the game (picture wise, no bench's).
 
The 32-bit seemed to run about the same as the 64-bit, but that was subjective, so I can't wait to see what your benchies say. Thankfully, it isn't TOO harsh on older stuff. I was running at 1920x1200, 0xAA, all settings to High on my: Vista 64-bit, FX-60, 2GB DDR, 8800GTX, etc. It was very playable, except the last cutscene. What was up with that last scene, my frames dropped from about 25-30ish most of the game to slide show? :pfff:
 
BAHH!
I feel like I'm in the twilight zone. Ok, I just finished reading "Building a Crysis PC, Part II"

First: The lower priced PC should definitely have a couple of 8800GT's in SLI or maybe even a couple of 2900Pro's in Crossfire. Either will surely get better performance results than a single waste-of-money 8800Ultra will.

Second: I would definitely go with 2 8800GTX's rather than 2 8800Ultra's for the higher priced PC. I know we want to squeeze all the performance we can out of what we have, but I think that the $200 we save by going with 2 8800GTX's instead can better be used by getting even better cooling gear, or even better RAM modules.

Third: I've heard that there is a little text-edit you can do to get the "Ultra High" settings of the Vista version in the XP version. So unless there's been proof that Vista will run the game faster or better, then I would stick with XP.
 
I just read the Part II article and since you requested input on your configuration choices here goes:

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE take the time to put Windows XP on one of these servers as a third test. That will give us a data point on whether it is worth it to upgrade or not. Just telling us what Vista will do doesn't allow us to compare.

Also, now the nVidia has released the GeForce 8800 GT, it would be nice to see what a pair of them would do compared to a 8800 Ultra. They support SLI, right? It would probably price out the same and should provide for better performance.
 
64-bit is the way to go. On my machine at 1280x1024, 4x AA, all setting on high except for textures and shaders on Very High I'm getting 24 fps and the game plays very well. Not to mention Vista runs sooo snappy on 64 bit with the full 4gb of ram showing. It's always caching most of the ram and only leaving 1gb free.
 
Why does THG insist on building systems that cost $2000 + with a gtx. Now that the 8800gt is out, two of them in SLI is not only better performance but also cheaper. that with a 680i mobo, q6600 4gb ram vista 64, with a 320GB and 700W power supply would be about $1700. cheaper and a better performer than what they built.
 
What I do not get is why you did not use an 8800GT platform: two of those blow away a single 8800 Ultra.

So, my setup for this game is:
Intel Q6600 (OC'ed to 3 gigahertz with MASCOOL 92mm cooler) ($280+$20=$300)
2x 8800GTs from XFX (I got em at $239 each, heheh)
EVGA 680i LT ($160)
APEVIA X-Plorer case ($50)
4 gigs of G.Skill DDR2-800 with CAS 4 ($180)
OCZ 700W Power Supply ($120)
Western Digital Caviar 160g HD ($50)
Lite-On DVD Burner, SATA ($35)
Acer 20" Widescreen Monitor ($180)
MS Vista Ultimate 64-bit System Builders Edition ($180)

At Newegg that came up to exactly $1725.89 before shipping


As to what I will be actually using, its all the same as really, but I'm reusing an old Antec 900, two DVD burners, a 32" LCD TV from Panasonic, I'm using a 650w powersupply from Xclio from my last build, and my old Caviar 160 gig. So just knock the PSU, Monitor, DVD Drive, case, HD and also I'm add two sticks of DDR2-800 CAS 5 from G.Skill (again, that was my last build). It should run in CAS 4 if I underclock it properly, then I will have a total of 6 gigs.

Thats only $1300, and if it does not run games on high settings for some time to come, I'll eat my case (and the 900 is BIG). Plus, the TV only runs at 1366x768, so I'll definitely be getting good frame rates. The TV can technically do 120, but 120 fps on a TV is just an electric shock to the field of pixels not displayed in interlaced mode. 720p will see no benefit from it most likely. Still, 60 FPS on a 32 " TV 5 feet away is going to be good.
 
Notice: the PC we have on campus is a "public use" PC, that is, because the college payed for it, only the professors get to use it. I figured I might add that, because some people might wonder why I am building a PC when I already listed one.
 
Hi I live in Venezuela where the computer are very expensive and with my PC a run the demo with 6xAA all setting at medium in it looks very good my PC specification are
Vista 32 bit Ultimate
MSI 975X Platinum PowerUp Edition
ATI Radeon X1900 XT (256MB)
Cheap HD (maxtor)
2 GB of ram (OCZ Gold XTC 800 MHz, G Skill F2- 800Mhz) dual chanel
PSU Codegen 2 rail of 12Volts 680wats Total
And a E2160 @ 1966 MHz
As you can see it´s a fairly cheap system
I hope to upgrade to an E6600 and be able to run it at high setting
 
Hey,
I played the beta and to my amazement the game played really well on my system.
Heres my Specs
Mobo: DFI 875P(not lan party version) rev.b socket 478
CPU: Pentium 4 Extream Edition 2mb L3 cache 3.4GHZ (not oced)
Memory: 2 gig dual channel OCZ PC3200 Platinum rev.2 (2-2-3-5)
Video card: HIS X1950pro agp 512mb factory overclocked (590MHZ core/1.54ghz Memory) (ati 7.10)
OS: XP HOME SP2
Hard drive: SATA 120 gig Diamond MAX Maxtor
PSU: 500watt Antec Basiq
Sound: Intergrated 5.1 "C-Media Xear"

I was able to run everything on "High" but mind you there is another higher level which it can be set to but it was grayed out. I guess if you have DX10 then it can be enabled. I am able to play this at a maxium resolution of 1024X768 with no issues. Unfortunately when i enabled AA even to 2X, i got horrible FPS. So to sum things up i had everything on to the second highest level but no AA. Even with no AA damn this game looks sweet with my current setup. And to think i was going to get a new rig just to play this.
 
Hey!!

The demo is awesome, I have in the midrange 40 FPS with all settings to very high at 1280X1024. 😀 Thanks to the 64 bit, I passed from 20-30 fps to 40-50 fps just by switching to the 64 bit and do some tweaking with the windows services and the page file. I think for Crysis having a 64 bit OS is a must have if you really want to squeeze all the juice from this game. I'll step-up really soon to the new 8800GTS 640MB 112 pixel pipeline (thanks to EVGA and their step-up program 😀) I hope that I will be able to push a little further the FPS :)

EDIT: Sorry fellas :??:, I just realize that when I was tweaking the in game specs I hung accidently the all settings button and put it to "High". That explain my extraordinary gain of performance. So back to reality, I still have 20 fps at "Very High" and 64 bit doesn't make Über differences. The only thing I remark with 64 bit it`s faster loading maybe some more fps but in a manner of +2-3%.

Specs:
Q6600 @ 3GHZ watercooled
4GB Corsair TwinX 800Mhz C4
EVGA 8800GTS 640MB @ 650/1615/1025
EVGA Motherboard 680i A1
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum with Alchemy
Antec Neo Power 480 watts
2X 250GB 16MB Cache in Stripe
1X 120GB for OS
1X 200Gb for second OS
Thermaltake Big water
Windows Vista Ultimate 64bit
Windows XP 64 bit
 
Tom's-
I have to say, at this point, if you are building a system for Crysis you have to opt for 2 x 8800GT over one GTX for the $. I waited until now to upgade, the release of 8800GT was exactly what I was waiting for. Crytek claims more cores the merrier for Crysis, because of that I also think you must start with a Qxxxx (I am awaiting someone to benchmark the difference). I am anxious to see if moving up to 64 bit Vista + 4GB of memory makes that much of an impact as well, I opted for 32 bit + 2GB. Otherwise I think I chose the best bang for buck ($134 for the MB, the case was a luxury item {8^)).
Lian Li A-16
MSI P6N Diamond
2 x 74GB Raptors in RAID 0, 500GB 7200.10
Q6600
2 x 1GB G.Skill DDR2/800 4-4-4-12
2 x Leadtek 8800GT SLI
PC Power & Cooling Silencer 610W
 
Wel I decided to download the game and give it a whirl although FarCry never seemed to grab me as much but either way why not. I installed it and then updated Vista for the 4GB thing. Strangely right after I id restart I got a BSoD but then it started fine.

Back to the results. I ran it at 1280x1024 with all settings on Very High to see what would happen. When it first loaded it was a bit choppy but after it got going it went smooth even during the parachuteing part.

I don't think I had one time when the game slowed down. It ran very nice and smooth. I enjoyed it but there are still a few bugs/glitches to get out.

I for one would like to see how it runs differently on different sized memory video cards. For low end you can have a 8800GTS 320 and go all te way to a HD2900Pro/XT with 1GB. Since the game seems to want a lot of it on the reccomended specs. Plus by the time it comes out there will be driver updates for the video cards and they will update a few things so it should run smoother by then.

Besides we haven't seen an update of all the cards performance especially since ATI updated the drivers and gave the R600 series a big boost in performance.

I ran it on a Q6600 OC'ed to 2.7GHZ, Asus P5K-E, 2GB Corsair PC8500 5-5-5-15, ATI Radeon HD2900Pro 1GB and 2 Seagate 500GB SATA2 7200.10 in RAID0.
 
Folks, I'd like to run the following specs by you and see what you think of them:

Antec - P182
BallistiX 2GB PC2-8500 DDR2 Kit (2 x 1GB) - two kits for 4GB
500GB Barracuda 7200.10 SATA II w/ NCQ, 16MB Cache
THERMALTAKE - Toughpower 850W Modular Power Supply
GA-P35-DS4 w/ DualDDR2 1066
e-GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB PCI-E
E6850 3.00GHz

I am not convinced I want to go to Vista. From what I read I'm not sure whether I can make XP Pro SP2 recognize all 4GB of RAM even with boot.ini switches of /PAE /3GB. Also I have ViewSonic VX924 and it only go up to 1280x1024 so I likely don't need more powerful machine. I was looking at eVGA nForce 680i SLI board but it isn't specifically meant for 1066 MHz DDR2 RAM only for 533/667/800/1200MHz. I am not planning on getting a second video card to run SLI plus I like the thermal solution on the Gigabyte. So, if I want to stick with XP Pro, getting Q6600 2.4GHz would not be optimal in my mind.

Any thoughts or criticism?

Thanks
 
The funny thing is that a 32-bit OS should be able to see 4GB exactallyno more though as thats the limit. if you take 2^32 (is how you find the memory allocation) then you get 4,294,967,296 bytes or (divided by 1024) 4,194,304 KB or 4,096 MB or 4GB even. I guess its just that the OS is set not to.

A 64bit OS/CPU can allocate up to 18,446,744,073,709,551,616 bytes or 17,179,869,184 GB theoretically. Hell lets go to Terabytes which would be 16,777,216 or 16,384 Petabytes or 16 Zetabytes(I think Zeta is the next after Peta). We haven't even reached 1 Terabyte so thats a long...long way off. Now we only have to find a way to load that much onto a board. I am sure though it would be nice to be able to have that much memory. You could pretty much get rid of hard drives as you could load everything into memory and pretty much kill a huge bottleneck. Well for load times at least.

I for one don't think 4GB ram will make much of a difference for Crysis where as a high end video card(i.e. 8800GTS 640 or HD2900Pro and up) will along with a Quad core CPU. Since the game seems to be based around large detailed textures then a high memory video card(i.e. HD2900Pro/XT 1GB) will make more of a difference since there will be more video memory to load the textures into.

I think lisiors PC will handle it fine at 1280x1024 at high settings since he has a good video card. But unless they decide to release DX10 to XP(which I doubt since they plan on stopping support for XP by 2009) you will miss out on a lot of nice things such as the God Rays(which amaze me more and more) or the motion blur which makes things look real when you turn around fast.

BTW I ran through the demo again and used the Koreans machine gun, whatever it is called, and used the tranq darts the whole time. It made things easier especially when you could just walk up to 10 sleeping enemies and headshot them all instead of running around being shot at. That plus the cloack was fn. Or that and the cloack and point blank face shot using the single burst rounds. What fun it was.
 
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