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[Solved] Trying to play Crysis, new to PC building.. will this work?

Forum Graphic & Displays : Graphics Cards - [Solved] Trying to play Crysis, new to PC building.. will this work?

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Best answer from Zirbmonkey.

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fergrim   10-22-2009 at 11:26:08 PM

So as the title says I'm fairly new to buying PCs as I haven't myself had a new one in ten years. This is my first, and rather than build it piece by piece I went with the alienware aurora with the following hardware:

i7 920 2.66ghz 8mb Cache
6gb DDR3 1067mhz
1.7 gig Geforce GTX 260 core 192
Soundblaster X-Fi Titanium

Will this be able to run crysis at playable framerates? I feel a bit unsure about how the GPU will perform overall. The i7 will be liquid cooled, I hope to be able to o/c that and maybe the RAM also.

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Best answer from Zirbmonkey
Stock or OCed, the CPU is fine for Crysis. The GTX 260 will give decent and very playable framerates on high settings at 1080p.

Eventually, the thing to upgrade would be the Graphics Card... if and when you deem it important to you based on the new games that come out. Everything else will serve you well for many years to come.
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Zirbmonkey   10-22-2009 at 11:36:31 PM
Best answer

Stock or OCed, the CPU is fine for Crysis. The GTX 260 will give decent and very playable framerates on high settings at 1080p.

Eventually, the thing to upgrade would be the Graphics Card... if and when you deem it important to you based on the new games that come out. Everything else will serve you well for many years to come.

------------------------------ <Gaming PC> | Cosmos 1000 Case | Zalman 850W PSU | EVGA X58 3XSLI | i7 920 OCed to 3.3GHz Stock Voltage/Fan | 6GB OCZ Platinum 1600 | Sapphire HD5870 | 2x Samsung 2343 (2048 x 1152) + 1x Samsung 2333HD (1080p) | 4x 1TB HDs in RAID 5 | Windows 7 Build 7100
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fergrim   10-22-2009 at 11:41:31 PM

Is upgrading the single card better than buying another 260 and using SLI?

Thank you so much for the prompt response, I ordered this new PC on a whim and I was afraid that I may have screwed something up :]

Reply to fergrim
Zirbmonkey   10-22-2009 at 11:45:31 PM

Since you already have a 260 in it, it'd be cheaper to boost the system with a second 260 for SLI. That'd be the best performance boost for the money rather than buying a single card replacement.

SLI scaling works quite well with the current video driver patches, you you can get nearly 2x the power when you add the second card.

------------------------------ <Gaming PC> | Cosmos 1000 Case | Zalman 850W PSU | EVGA X58 3XSLI | i7 920 OCed to 3.3GHz Stock Voltage/Fan | 6GB OCZ Platinum 1600 | Sapphire HD5870 | 2x Samsung 2343 (2048 x 1152) + 1x Samsung 2333HD (1080p) | 4x 1TB HDs in RAID 5 | Windows 7 Build 7100
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fergrim   10-22-2009 at 11:46:54 PM

And my final question, again.. very gratefully sir :]

My PSU is the 525 watt.. I see people saying you need to have an 875/1.1k or nothing.. Did I make a mistake with that?

Reply to fergrim
Zirbmonkey   10-23-2009 at 12:01:09 AM

Ahhh... good question. If you want a second GTX 260 to SLI, you'll have to upgrade the PSU. Something around 650+ watts. If you OC your CPU, add another 100+ watts to that as well. And make sure it's a quality PSU with some kind of "80 plus" certification. When it comes to PSUs, you absolutely get what you pay for, so invest wisely. There's nothing worse than a $100 PSU taking out $500+ in hardware


Message edited by Zirbmonkey on 10-23-2009 at 12:01:59 AM
------------------------------ <Gaming PC> | Cosmos 1000 Case | Zalman 850W PSU | EVGA X58 3XSLI | i7 920 OCed to 3.3GHz Stock Voltage/Fan | 6GB OCZ Platinum 1600 | Sapphire HD5870 | 2x Samsung 2343 (2048 x 1152) + 1x Samsung 2333HD (1080p) | 4x 1TB HDs in RAID 5 | Windows 7 Build 7100
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fergrim   10-23-2009 at 12:03:46 AM

Oh noes! So is it not safe to overclock my system at all with the 525 watt?


Message edited by fergrim on 10-23-2009 at 12:04:35 AM
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brockh   10-23-2009 at 12:08:06 AM

Okay, first of all there's something very important to note here. The GTX 260 in your computer is a Core 192 version, not the newer 216 version. Regardless of Nvidia saying that they should SLi fine together, people usually have problems if they try and mix them. Unfortunately, the card by itself will also provide worse performance so I don't think you'll be getting too great of frame rates in Crysis on High/Very High (in 1920x1080) until you add another card.

Always better to build it piece by piece. ;)


Message edited by brockh on 10-23-2009 at 12:10:19 AM
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Zirbmonkey   10-23-2009 at 12:14:47 AM

You'd probably suck down about 450-500W stock (I'm guessing). So there's probably 25-75W of headroom. I wouldn't push it, especially if you plan on ripping DVDs while playing Crysis.

A seemingly reliable PSU calculator can be found here:
http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

When I put in my computer specs, it tells me I'm at 550W. If I get a second video card, it goes up to 650W... which to me seems reasonable, if not a tad low.


Message edited by Zirbmonkey on 10-23-2009 at 12:15:16 AM
------------------------------ <Gaming PC> | Cosmos 1000 Case | Zalman 850W PSU | EVGA X58 3XSLI | i7 920 OCed to 3.3GHz Stock Voltage/Fan | 6GB OCZ Platinum 1600 | Sapphire HD5870 | 2x Samsung 2343 (2048 x 1152) + 1x Samsung 2333HD (1080p) | 4x 1TB HDs in RAID 5 | Windows 7 Build 7100
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fergrim   10-23-2009 at 12:19:25 AM

From all I've heard, the 192 isn't very different performance wise from the 216.. I'm not looking for very good at 1920x1080..

 

I'm looking for good at like 1280x1024 and high settings.

 

And apparently.. well, not including the water cooling system since I don't know all its specs.. I'll be using 325 watts of my PSU.. Just enough room to tweak everything :]


Message edited by fergrim on 10-23-2009 at 12:21:31 AM
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brockh   10-23-2009 at 12:26:33 AM

Haha, well I hope you're being conservative. For what I'm guessing you paid for that it won't make much of a difference at 1280x1024 if you got something a thousand bucks cheaper. :P

Reply to brockh
Minus_i7   10-23-2009 at 12:45:34 AM

Get the bigger power supply if you're going to overclock and have two video cards. The GTX 260 can draw up to 180 watts by itself. I have almost the same system and I went with a 700+ psu to compensate for max load and aging.

If you only ever have one video card, then the smaller PSU should be fine. It's unlikely any future single GPU will draw much more power than the 260 core 192.

Your overclock will likely be the deal breaker. Full load on the whole system could push it over the edge. Either you'll need the bigger PSU, or you'll have to hold off on overclocking until you get a more energy efficient video card.

Reply to Minus_i7
megamanx00   10-23-2009 at 12:55:22 AM

Go for 2 260 sp 216s in SLI. One card would be fine to play the game on high, but if you want to start putting some of the settings on very high then that second card is certainly needed.

Reply to megamanx00
invisik   10-23-2009 at 01:16:22 AM

(gtx260) 192 or 216 core will work together. I would recommend getting another gtx260 for sli. Im running 2 oc gtx 260 sli and they run great and can pretty much max out crysis at 1920x1080. If your psu is a quality psu then you can overclock it. Im running a q6600 @ 3.2ghz 6gig memory and 2 oc gtx 260 sli on a antec earthwatt 500.

Reply to invisik
fergrim   10-23-2009 at 01:33:50 AM

Great! Yeah I heard about that the gtx 260 can SLI with any other gtx 260.. they just scale down to the least of each different cards specs.. which doesn't sound so terrible.

 

So with my single card, I'll have my settings on high and be running a decent framerate? Missing out on barely anything and experiencing beautiful graphics at a playable framerate?

 

If so, I can't complain.. but I definitely will be looking for another 260 as my next upgrade.. I think I'll try to SLI my current one with a 216.. Most everywhere I look I'm told I can.

 

I like being able to do the very best.. but playing crysis on high at all sounds amazing to me.. (current pc is a p4 2.53ghz..)

 

(Thanks everyone for help and responses)


Message edited by fergrim on 10-23-2009 at 01:50:25 AM
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