Hey all,

I just upgraded from an 8800 GTX SC from eVGA to a 9800 GX2 from eVGA. When I originally installed Crysis with my 8800 GTX and ran the system performance option in the graphics menu of the game, the results recommended VERY HIGH settings. Of course, it'd get pretty choppy with them all on, but that's what it recommended. Now, with my 9800 GX2, when I run the optimal system performance option (same thing as I did with the 8800 GTX) I'm getting a recommendation of only HIGH settings. If I try to put on any AA, it gets pretty choppy and when I tested out 16x AA, I couldn't even move. Is that normal? I figured I'd be getting much better frame rates with the 9800 GX2 and that I'd be able to max my resolution out to 1600x1050 with AA on at VERY HIGH settings.

Was I a bit too optimistic, or is there something that could be wrong with my settings?

For a second, I though that it might not be taking advantage of both cores. I really don't know. I was just expecting a quite a bit of an improvement with the move to the 9800 GX2.

Your help is appreciated!

Best,

Cam

16xx AA? Are you nuts? ahah no card can take that, the GX2 struggles with 4 AA enough. Crysis is bad Coding. They stated that current Hardware shouldn't run Crysis properly.

I run Crysis at 1280 Res, 4 AA Very High Settings (Shadows Med) with no problems, when I say no problems I mean around 20-60 Fps. The game isn't a decent comparison for charts. Trust me. Even 3 Ultras in sli didn't do much with it.

Oh yeah, I know 16x AA is insane, but I didn't think it'd be so bad that I couldn't navigate the in game menus!

My main concern is that it's recommending HIGH with my GX2 and it was recommending VERY HIGH with my 8800 GTX.

My card drivers are all up to date.

First off, the reason for the intense lag/stuttering is due to AA being set any higher than 4xAA, which I beleive activates an antialiasing bug in the drivers, hopefully it will be fixed with new drivers, but even 4xAA can be unplayable in Crysis. Secondly, I assume that you are running Vista, to achieve 'Very high' status. Well that is the second problem, Vista can slay graphics cards in numerous apps just because it blows. And I am not just hating on Vista, because I OWN BOTH VISTA AND XP. Anyways, to the point where you mention that it auto detects to 'high' settings instead of 'very high': Don't worry about it. Some games that use auto detect features are retarded. I remember a few games that set my optimal settings to low or medium even though my rig rapes every game out there. The auto detect feature is for noobs and can be completely misleading if there is a new vid card involved that also may not have proper driver settings yet. So really don't worry about it. And you were dreaming if you thought Crysis would run on very high with Antialiasing enabled.

Good to know. I have heard of the auto detect settings of other games being a joke, I was just hoping that Crytek got it. I guess not! Thanks for the input. I'll be waiting for those new drivers...

Thanks again,

Cam

First the 9800GX2 isn't THAT powerful. Its a uneeded upgrade taking into account the price of it, and the performance gain you get. It just doesn't make sense to me. At the Moment I have an OC 8800GTX and I am sticking with it till given another option other then the "slap more 8800's together" 9800GX2 that has been offered.

Anywho, Like the post above states autodetect is screwy, Your card is new, it probably doesn't recognize it like it does the 8800GTX so for safety reasons it puts the settings to "high".

Don't AA the game so much and you'll be fine. The only card that can run crysis at 1680x1050, 16AA, 16 Aniso, is called the Dream card my friend. And it will arrive in a year, or two.

Uh, I guess you haven't been paying attention, but at high settings and resolutions the 8800 GTX beats the 9800 GX2 in Crysis. All this bragging about 9800GX2 power in Crysis is due to its LOW settings scores.

I wouldn't be surprised to see the 9800GX2 lead the 8800GTX by around 30% at 1280x720 no AA no AF (High Settings), but then see the 8800GTX lead the 9800GX2 by a similar amount at 1920x1200 4x AA at Very High settings.

The thing is, a lead of 20 or 30 FPS looks a lot bigger than a lead of 5 or 6 FPS, even if they're both "30%" at different settings. And the problem is that no single card is playable in Crysis at Very High with AA at 1920x1200.

The solution was obvious: You should have gotten a second 8800GTX, put it in SLI, and overclocked both cards to the limit. For high resolutions and very high settings in Crysis, the 9800GX2 is a huge waste of money.

In fact, one might think the 9800GX2 is always a huge waste of money, since it's often beat by two 8800GT's in SLI. After all, it cost as much as three top-model 8800GT's. As for the dual 9800GX2 in 4-GPU SLI mode, it still can't beat a pair of 8800GTX's at high resolutions and very high settings.

Unless you're looking for huge frame rates at low to medium resolutions and are limitted to a single slot, the 9800GX2 is a rip off.

If all youre talking about is Crysis, then maybe you are correct. But 2x8800GTX beating 2x9800GX2 in any other apps. is just not true.

For those of you wondering, I paid about $590 for my 8800 GTX (bundled with Crysis) and I qualified (by about 3 days) for the 120 day eVGA step up program. That means that my $590 was put toward the cost of a new 9800 (which was $600). $10? That's a no brainer. I'd love to have 2 8800 GTX cards in SLI, but that wasn't a realistic financial goal.

Thanks for all of the opinions!

Cam

The 9800 GX2 can take any card at 1280,1600 and even 1080p. The only way it looses is maybe if you go int he 2000s for res. The card is a king. As you can see from THG benchmarks.

My advice would be to leave AA off in Crysis. Turning on AA disables the "EdgeAA" feature that make the foliage look nice. In case you didn't notice, regular AA has no effect on the foliage, so it actually looks better when AA is off because of EdgeAA.

In my opinion DX10.1 and AA standardization can't come soon enough.