ok here are my system Specs:
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ 2.61ghz 2mb l2 cache socket AM2
Graphics: Nvidia Geforce GTX 260 896mb overclocked to 650mhz on a PCI E 2.0 slot
RAM: 2gb DDR2
Powersupply: 550W
Harddrive: 7200RPM i think
Windows Vista 32bit Sp1 BRAND NEW COPY WITH NO BACKGROUND APPS RUNNING
i have Dual Core optimizer too

ALL THESE ARE MAXIMUM POSSIBLE SETTINGS:
i can run GEARS OF WAR on Ultra high and never dip blow 50fps
i can run OBLIVION and never get less or more (its capped) than 60fps
FAR CRY2 does 29-45fps depending on day time, conditions

now my problem with Crysis is the following
i set everything to ultra high with no AA
1440x900 without v sync

The game runs at a nice n smooth 30fps BUT whenever i smash things or shoot at ppl it can dip to 18-22fps
also when i go to a place with a lot of buildings it drops to 22fps
also whenever i turn my fuking head it slows down to 24fps from 30fps
what is causing this?
even when i switch the graphics from Ultra High to High i get the exact Fps
(maybe 2fps less)

my question is could the processor be at fault here?
when i play crysis it uses up about 59-69% of total processing power
uses 1.5gb of ram
and the graphics card reaches temperatures of 65 degrees Celsius

im really disgusted right now because no matter what i throw at my computer... when i turn my head really quickly or do stuff that required physics calculations the game stutters for 3s and then become PERFECTLY smooth again

PLEASE HELP ME

aditional info:
my computer has a brand new copy of VISTA 32bit home premium (SP1) on it so it dosent have alot of stuff on it lol
and my frame capture software was FRAPS
and i had nothing running in the background during the tests except for vital stuff like windows processeses, msn, daemon tools and fraps (not recording)

Not your rig's fault. It's typical with Crysis to run like that. Most of the benchs are done with QX6850 or better. Try overclock your CPU to 3GHz and you should see some improvement.

i think its your cpu.

You're trying to play crysis on ultra quality on a mid end video card?

You need at least two gtx 280 to play on ultra quality at that resolution. 3 gtx 280 to play at 1920x1200.

Plus your CPU is holding you down. The RAM is fine.

Pretty sure it is lack of ram. I had 4200+, 8800GTX, 4GB of ram, Vista x64 and was running crysis just fine. Obviously not ultra high but that was because of vid card. CPU usage around 60%, Ram usage over 3GB, at some points Crysis on its own used over 2GB of Ram. What happens to You is that You run out of ram and use pagefile too much which causes slowdowns. I have since switched over to P35 board, Q6600 @3.2GHz, 6GB Ram. Have not tried crysis after that but would expect similar performance due to old vid card.

Hey I have a 8800GT with 2GB of RAM and I just got a Q9550. I didn't notice any difference in game performance. So I got two more sticks of RAM total of 4GB and I notice a pretty big increase in performance. My CPU was being held back by my Ram.

So heres the deal. My 2GB of ram was holding my Q9550 performance back. I got the ram and it was able to open up more performance. Now my 8800GT is still holding my Q9550 full potential back. All these components work together and if one is holding you back its not going anywhere. Get 4GB of ram.

Your GPU is actually pretty good and I know guys running some of the most graphic intensive games like Crysis, FSX, COD4 on max with that card. In this case your CPU and your Ram are holding your GPU back drastically.

I would say new CPU first as well as 4GB of ram at the same time. You will have a flying fast system if you do that.

I have a 8800GT, Q9550, 4GB ram and I can play Crysis on the highest of high graphics with no AA of course with 30fps.

Come to think of it, my previous system with a 8800Gt, e6600 2.4Ghz CPU, and 2GB ram, I was still able to run Crysis on maxed graphics.

You might also want to lower your blur option. Also check your GPU settings in windows and you can try turning off your vertical sync option. If it lags when you turn, its a vertical sync issue. That is pretty GPU demanding, but like I said I dont have that problem and never did.

I use 4gb for crysis wars and after a couple of hours (memory leak?) I start lagging and see my pagefile usage shoot up. Get 4gb or 8gb! and the problem should go away You CPU is getting on but should cope ok

Beat me to it gellert

Afaik, all these people posting to get an extra 2gb RAM have missed that you are on 32bit so a lot of that upgrade wont be recognised.

If i were you I'd spend some cash on a OEM 64 bit Vista, up the RAM and the CPU. I guess the case as well will need redoing..i saw a few days ago that Ebuyer in the UK has the Antec 900 reduced so idk if you will see the same in USA or wherever you are from.

Bit of a reality check, your GPU is sweet, the rest is (going on what you say) pretty average so yes its reasonable to suggest upgrades to more than one section if you want to keep up with bleeding edge.


I wonder if people would agree with me in saying get a Q6600 instead as they are apparantly a doddle to Overclock, and will save some cash.
I know little of Intel, and overclocking so dont just take my advice on that

With the GTX260 using near a GB of ram that ceiling drops to below 3GB, at which point it might be worth the move to 64bit.

I built a system for a friend with a gtx 260 (overclocked via rivatuner ) (he wanted it to be very cheap so i put most of the money into the videocard)

2GB memory ( gskill, one of their higher end models that overclock well)

500GB hard drive

amd 64 x2 5400+ overclocked

running windows xp

1680x1050 everything maxed out except AA

he hovers around 30-40FPS except when in the alien ship where it goes down to around 26-30FPS

toere is no turning lag or the explosion lag (other than the standars slight fps drop when a large explosion happens (reasonable as theres more to render)

it runs smooth

I also stripped down the startup so theres only 11 running processes at startup (system memory usage at bootup is around 60MB

remember, vista comes pre bloated and if you are using a store bought gaming pc or are running something like nortons or itunes or other memory and cpu hogging apps then games will run slower

I dualboot vista and 3 copies of windows xp

many games that run smooth in xp, range from slightly laggy, to moderately laggy in vista



I recommend you upgrade to 4GB memory as vista is most likely already using much of your system memory to just run it's self, leaving very little for your other apps

also use codestuff starter to disable any startup items and services that you don't need

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/starter.html

and extra ram helps

when I use 3GB of ram (i mainly use 2GB since my other memory sticks don't overclock as much) crysis runs a little smoother, the fps don't go any higher but the game holds a more steady frame rate (but i don't keep 3Gb because then i pretty much have to cut my cpu overclock in half because the other memory sticks don't overclock well