Two $5000+ configurations - which is better for Crysis max?

Cyber_49er

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It's basically a toss up between the Skulltrail with two CPUs but no DDR3 and a cheaper setup that allows for 3x SLi and DDR3, my main concern would be passably running Crysis at 2500x1600 with very high detail settings on Vista.

eVGA nForce 790i Ultra 3 PCI-E slots or Intel Skulltrail
Core 2 Extreme 3.2 GHz 775 yorkfield or 2x the same thing but with 771 pin for Skulltrail
4x 2GB OCZ Reaper DDR3 PC310666 1333MHz or 2x 4GB FBDIMM DDR2 667MHz by Kingston for the Skulltrail setup

Most importantly:

3x Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 or 2x Nvidia GeForce 9800GX2 for the Skulltrail setup.

The Skulltrail system is still more expensive but is having 8 cores worth the cost of sacrificing DDR3 memory and 3 way SLi for Crysis?
 
Beer and other services for that price.

The 3x SLI system will give you the best Crysis system.
Assuming that is GTX 280 SLI, that is.
9800GX2 SLI dose not scale as well as GTX 280 SLI.

Why anyone would spend $5000 on one mediocre game is beyond me...
 

pcgamer12

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Crysis @ 2560x1600 with eyecandy? You must be joking. Wait for even faster/cheaper technology to be released. Come back between 2009 and 2010 please.
 
I haven't seen a lot of skulltrail benchmarks, however, one of my biggest decision making factors doesn't seem to be a factor for you; cost. I'm not really impressed with Skulltrail and QuadFX, I think they're more gimmicky than anything.

Crysis is not as good as FarCry. I'm really disappointed with that game.

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sarwar_r87

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5000 bucks just to play crysis with max setting.......that game doesnt deserve such honor........if u have 2 much money to spend, give some charity...that will be money well spent.
 

Craxbax

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Two things. First, if someone can afford a $5000 system then help them choose the best setup available and leave off the color commentary. Some people CAN afford it even if you can not!

Second, the point that Crysis is a mediocre game ( and I agree) may be valid but he/she may like it. Unfortunately; it is actually poorly coded for multicore/multithread capable systems and that would make 8 cores basically useless for Crysis. The tri SLI with the fastest, best scaling cards would give the best results. Combine this with the highest OC'd C2D available, quad or dual, as the game is more depended on mhz than number of cores.
 

aziraphale

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And I must agree with sarwar: give the money to charity - that would make you feel better, help some people that need it more that you do, and it would make you look a lot less decadent. That's my humble opinion however.
 
I guess most people just cannot understand that to some people, $5000 is not a whole lot of money. There are people who will spend $5000 as easily as many would spend a couple hundred, or even a couple of $20's. Maybe he has already given a substantial amount of money to charity, and he feels this is his personal reward for being such a humanitarian. Point is, you never know.

You should not judge other people if you are ignorant of the facts surrounding the circumstances.

The fastest single Quad core you can find and triple SLI will net you the best you are gonna get in Crysis for now.
 

Il-Mari

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Geez, what is it with you people?

It's as if someone asked an automobile forum what they should look for when buying a new Jaguar, and a bunch of douches chimed in telling him to buy a second-hand Toyota because 'it has much better value'.

The man wants to spend his money for a top of the line system, and some advice on how to do it best, so don't go about just giving some smug lines about donating the money to charity instead or some crap like that.

Anyway, back on topic, I suggest you take a look at this article, if you haven't already:

http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/1466/1/page_1_introduction/index.html

It shows that even Tri-SLI with GTX 280s won't let you play Crysis at 2560X1600 - the third card just doesn't scale, and it appears that one might reach a CPU bottleneck that just isn't surmountable with current CPUs at those settings.

Future drivers or CPU advancements might fix this to a degree, but I'm not sure if what you're proposing is realistic at this point in time.
 

cah027

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I think I saw a video of the game being played on a prototype Nehalem system back before crysis came out. I think It had 2 SLI Ultras. Wish I could find that video again. They said it was playing "butter smooth". Maybe we all just have to wait until Nehalem to fully unlock the potential for the lastest video cards and this particular game.
 

BustedSony

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Wouldn't 2 X 4870X2 do even better, and be cheaper; provide DirectX 10.1 support, which the GTX280 won't, and be a better multimedia system with the HDMI audio which only the ATI cards have?
 

3m_ta3

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If I were you I would wait it out for the benchmarks on ATI's 4870X2 in Quad Crossfire before deciding. One 4870 comes close to the GTX 280 in terms of performance already, and it is *Probable* that when the 4870X2 is released, ATI will hold the performance crown over Nvidia. If that isn't the case, you can always look at the GTX 280 tri-sli option with ddr3. In either case I wouldn't recommend Skulltrail, the excessive size (EATX) and use of fully buffered dimms doesn't make it a particularly attractive solution for everyday gaming, being more suited to cpu intensive work such as rendering. It might be an idea to read the article on it if you haven't already.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/intel-skulltrail-part-1,1768.html

Good Luck!

 

cah027

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I think that is the case with posts like this. OP has 1 post and hasn't replied. Probably won't . I could be wrong though.
 


Well said. And for a "open" game I got bored with it fast.



I agree. But for $5K you can build that system add water cooling to OC the Quad and still have $2K left for other stuff.

But as said a Skulltrail system is overkill and the GTX280s are your best bet since they scale better than the 9800 series.
 

cah027

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Heck for 5K he could build two high end systems and mix and match cards and OC to find the sweet spot. But right now is not the time to plan and build a 5k pc. I would wait a month or two for the new cpu's and next rev of the current cards
 

cal8949

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yeah it seams kinda bad to dump that kind of money into a system now i would wait until nahelam and 4870x2 before spending that kind of money. but if you need the system now i wouldn't go for a skulltrail system you'll save a lot of money and i would get a sick cooling setup, sick speakers and huge dual monitors. wow that computer will take me like 5 years to save up for

i don't have any proof of this but it seams like 3 gtx280 would bottleneck the best cpu's. i would go with 4870's so i have some money to spend on strippers after
 

Vertigon

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I play crisis with very high settings with my quadcore and a mediocre card on 1152x864 and never in that game can it load my quad core to 100%. I read the skulltrail review and reread it on many occasions and was surprised how little difference it made in most apps, even falling in spec to the QX9650 in some instances. The best monitor I can think of that runs 2560x1600 is Dells new 3008WFP, I have played crysis on a Samsung 305T with 6ms response and I am telling you despite your setup you are going to suffer ghosting and lag. Tri SLI is something games won't make use of until at least 2010 by my predictions. My GOOD advice to you is to get a Q9550 with 1333Mhz DDR3 and two 4870's in sli on a GA-X48-DQ6 board. It's a good future proof setup that isn't cheap yet isn't a total rip off. If you want to spend some money get a QX9650 with the unlocked multi. I have had mine OC'd to 4.3Ghz on the stcok cooler but found it was stupid, nothing could load it up except for rendering so now I have it at 3.7 Ghz.

The skulltrail unit would make a great render box and maybe thier are other apps that can load 8 cores to 100% consistantly but crysis definetly isn't one of them.
 

Vokofpolisiekar

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Well the aim here would be to advise him using any flavour of criticism. As for affording - I can, the question is am I devoid of logic to do so? Certainly not. Even if someone has the money, it's overkill which brings me back to the opening part of this post.

If he has $5000 and wants to blow it on something that looses value quicker than a vehicle in a fraction of the time, by all means go for it. If I choose to comment on it (and do keep in mind the grammar side as I was never directly talking to him), it's my choice and it comes with the rest here whom coincidently share the same common believe that it's a waste of money.
 

Vertigon

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People who had to spend big dollars years ago aren't really that familiar of the speed of a quad core. I was the same, I went from a seriously underpowered P3 setup to a QX9650. It wasn't until I had the machine that I really understood how much power it had. So before we label people who want high end systems as "fools" lets us please consider thier prior experiences.