Crysis 3 gaming rig questions

[deth sumbish]

Hey I was just wondering if someone with some more knowledge could point me in the right direction. I would love to play crysis 3 on the highest settings or close to it at a good frame rate.

My current rig is a i5 3570k with aftermarket cooler @ stock speeds. 8gb ram. Gtx 660 FTW sig 2. ASRock b75m-gl mobo. Corsair 600w power supply. WD Black 500gb HDD. 42in Sharp LED tv 1080p.

Now, I would like to know if I should ditch the mobo for overclocking/sli on this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157330
And then get another 660. Plus a http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151102
For an SLI build?

Or would it be smarter to ditch the 660 and get a 670 FTW on my current rig and just overclock it. I know single GPU has its reasons for being better. But in a game like crysis 3 is a single GPU enough?
Both these options will cost me about the same(Long story). Just want to know which route to go. Thanks.

 

[AMD Radeon]

if you want raw performance, new mobo + another 660 will outperfom option 670 ftw.
i5 OC and dual 660 is better. but it brings microstuttering problem.

 

[gussrtk]

in your situation i would get that motherboard with another 660, you've already spent a couple of hundred bucks on a vid card, if you cant get rid of it (sell to friend or something) then i think it would be better to buy another. is it s 660 or 660TI?


if it is 660ti i would SLI if its regular 660 take the 670

 

[deth sumbish]

Any clue how a 670 FTW will preform in C3? I haven't been able to find benchmarks. I've also never SLI'd so I'm not sure how bad microshuttering actually looks. Just want to run the game smooth while keeping some eye candy, maybe not all of it.


It's a normal 660. I built this rig mainly to play borderlands 2, achieved that. Now I've got far cry 3 and it doesn't run so hot. So I figured I'd just shoot for Crysis 3, while trying to not spend too much money. Selling the 660 wont be a problem.

 

[deth sumbish]

Or to throw in another option a 7970? I'm not sure if crysis 3 is optimized more for one than the other.

 

[AMD Radeon]

personally if budget limits my option, I will just buy 7970 and enjoy its performance without any OC because of mobo+psu limitation. and i will sell gtx 660 (take time) to puchase mobo+psu

 

[manofchalk]

The 7970 is a good option, performs better than a 670 and has Crysis 3 and Bioshock Infinite come free because of the Never Settle: Reloaded deals.
So just from the savings in the retail price for Crysis 3, you'v payed for a new mobo.

 

[quilciri]

Crytek optimized Crysis 1 and 2 for Nvidia hardware, so it's not a stretch to assume Crysis 3 will be as well. If you're buying new video hardware specifically for Crysis, Nvidia is your best bet for stock performance.

Having said that, you will usually get better overclocking results on an AMD card if you plan on doing that, as their hardware has unlocked voltage (Bought a second 7850 in prep for crysis 3, and to push a 2560x1440 display. Currently running the pair of Asus DC2 7850's @ 1200mhz core from the stock 860mhz using 1.22 and 1.24v respectively).

Not to mention the never settle deal chalk pointed out that gets you Crysis 3 & the new bioshock for free

enjoy!

 

[deth sumbish]

I can Xfire with my current mobo. Would you suggest a setup like yours Quilciri for 1080p? I can't get high OC on it but do I need a high CPU OC on a highly GPU dependent game?

Sorry for all the questions, I know the game isn't out yet so performance can't be for sure.

 

[quilciri]

I can Xfire with my current mobo. Would you suggest a setup like yours Quilciri for 1080p? I can't get high OC on it but do I need a high CPU OC on a highly GPU dependent game?

Sorry for all the questions, I know the game isn't out yet so performance can't be for sure.

I'm a bit confused why you're asking about CPU overclocking. The overclocking I mention above was video card overclocking. My CPU is only moderately overclocked right now (3570k @ 4ghz, stock voltage).

 

[deth sumbish]

Sorry, I should have worded that differently. I know you have a GPU OC. But I was asking if a high CPU OC would be a noticeable difference? Because I could run with a 7970 and possibly OC my CPU, but I'm not sure if that would increase frames much. Trying to do this the cheapest way possible. I'm thinking just switching in a 7970 or your setup and possibly a little CPU or GPU(Maybe, not sure how much power that'll use) OC will result in what I want from my system.

 

[FinneousPJ]

Crytek optimized Crysis 1 and 2 for Nvidia hardware, so it's not a stretch to assume Crysis 3 will be as well.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/GPU12/372

OP: Why not wait at least until the game is released :lol:

 

[FinneousPJ]

derp

 

[quilciri]

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/GPU12/372

OP: Why not wait at least until the game is released :lol:

That's fair, and I did not say it was a certainty, but the most recent release (Crysis 2 DX 11) performs better on Nvidia cards. Crysis 3 will be using the same engine as Crysis 2 (Cryengine 3 in both cases), so it is a resonable conclusion that Nvidia hardware is likely to perform better in this particular game.

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/crysis_2_dx11_vga_and_cpu_performance_benchmarks,9.html

Once again that performance advantage, if it exists, is pretty well negated by a free copy of Crysis 3 with the 7900 series. On that note, however, it's likely that Nvidia will have their own counter-promotion of free games shortly.

 

[FinneousPJ]

That article doesn't even feature HD7k or Nvidia 600. It's useless. I mean nobody's going to buy an old GPU to prepare for Crysis 3.

 

[quilciri]

That article doesn't even feature HD7k or Nvidia 600. It's useless. I mean nobody's going to buy an old GPU to prepare for Crysis 3.

It shows the previous two generations of both manufacturers. While there is always the possibility of an upset, are you asserting there's going to be a huge flip 1 generation later in the same game engine? I am simply stating odds here.

 

[FinneousPJ]

Eh, what? How did you get the idea I "seem to be asserting there's going to be a huge flip 1 generation later in the same game engine"? I posted one benchmark link. There's nothing huge here either way, you're just being silly

 

[deth sumbish]

Best answer selected by deth sumbish.

 

[deth sumbish]

Thanks for all the help. I think I'm going with the 7970. Even if Crysis 3 does follow since they both are Cryengine 3, it shouldn't be too noticeable. Add in the free game and that's a whole lotta win for the buck.

 

[quilciri]

Eh, what? How did you get the idea I "seem to be asserting there's going to be a huge flip 1 generation later in the same game engine"? I posted one benchmark link. There's nothing huge here either way, you're just being silly

I agree with the statement there's not concrete evidence. However, the 6970 is a whopping 14 fps behind the 580 @ 1920x1200 in Crysis2 dx11. If AMD comes out on top in Crysis 3, that means they made up a lot of lost ground. I'd call a 14+ fps improvement in relation to the competitor "huge".

Every post I made was sprinkled with caveats such as "likely", and are based on precedents I posted above. I was just wondering exactly what you were agruing with.

 

[quilciri]

Oh, and if you do go with the dual 660 option, turning off adaptive v-sync pretty much eliminates microstuttering.

enjoy!

 

[Headbomb]

That's fair, and I did not say it was a certainty, but the most recent release (Crysis 2 DX 11) performs better on Nvidia cards. Crysis 3 will be using the same engine as Crysis 2 (Cryengine 3 in both cases), so it is a resonable conclusion that Nvidia hardware is likely to perform better in this particular game.

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/crysis_2_dx11_vga_and_cpu_performance_benchmarks,9.html

Once again that performance advantage, if it exists, is pretty well negated by a free copy of Crysis 3 with the 7900 series. On that note, however, it's likely that Nvidia will have their own counter-promotion of free games shortly.

http://www.geforce.com/landing-page/free-2-play
Yup, There's that counter-promotion.