Hi
As I am new to this site, please bare with me. I have just made a new machine, and are haveing a little problem when playing Crysis, as it does not move as smooth as I had expected.

The machine consists of
Motherboard: ASUS Maximus Formula Republic of Gamers
CPU: Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4 GHz
RAM: Kingston HyperX 2 x 1 GB
Video card: ASUS EN8800GT/G/HTDP
HDD: WD Caviar SE16 WD5000AAKS 500 GB

In general I believe that I have set up a good system but.....

I have installed VISTA Ultimate, and realize that this is not speeding up the system %uF04C compared to a short test with XP. However, when running XP, it is not possible to run the setting "Very high" , this is possible in VISTA, and the auto detected setting by Crysis. Again, when running at "Very high" the system are NOT smooth.

Can I do something to help this?

I have been wondering if 2 video cards would do the trick? If installing two cards, must they then be absolutely identical (fabricate, type etc) or could it be any other 8800GT ?

I've had it running @ 35fps Avg on Very High With 3780 in CF on a 19" monitor. Maybe a GTS would do it, having two of them certainly would. As for your GT SLI question you would need any two with the same clock speed preferably.

Also try overclocking your CPU. It seems a waste to have an ASUS MF and a Q6600 at stock speeds. Just a basic to 3Ghz would add at least 5fps. Overclock your GFX with RivaTuner to get another few Fps.

There's no single card that can handle Crysis at over 30fps all the time on very high.

The "very high" settings only appear in Vista because of some directx10 things it uses, but you can get "very high" in xp, it looks slightly different, but it's hardly noticeable, and from what I hear, runs way smoother.

I agree with deal, try oc'ing a little bit, I got almost 5 more fps oc'ing my 8800GTS 320.

depends on the resolution and AA too
you can't have it all at the same time
there aint no hardware yet to that is powerfull enough for that

There is a detailed review of the Crysis patch at TechSpot
http://www.techspot.com/article/83 [...] -multigpu/

The article compares Crysis version 1.0 to 1.1 with single card and SLI performance. In DX10 High Quality mode, two 8800 GT cards in SLI will give you an extra 12 fps. In DX9 Medium Quality, SLI is about 5 fps SLOWER than 1 card. I would NOT spend $280 just to get an extra 12 fps.

To be fair, a 12 fps increase when running 20 - 30 fps currently is a pretty good jump especially since it will make the games playability alot better in this case. If it were from 50 or 60 fps then adding 12 fps wouldnt mean to much, but since low is what we are getting now I would say it warrants it if you have the cash to spare.

@ the OP. My system in the sig avg ~30 fps in the GPU benchmark in Vista DX10 32bit, running full res (1680x1050) with no AA on a 20" LCD Monitor, running all graphical settings on high with the exception of Texture, Physics and Post Processing Quality. I have those 3 settings set to Very High. I am not sure what res you are running, but I would imagine that your system should be able to produce very similar results to mine, so I would just recommend trying those settings if you dont want to get another card, and the game should run decently smooth. Hope this helps.

Best,

3Ball

Thanks for the reply.

I will try overclocking the processor....if I can find the way to do it.

Also I have to admit I am new to oc'ing, and in this connection I have to ask: "SLI" is that an expression for dual vidio card?

How do you see the FPS?

And related to this....which benchmark program do you use?

SLI can be dual, triple, quad.. it's nvidia's term.

Crossfire is what ATI calls it.

There is a built in benchmark program that shows FPS and and will show you your minimum, avg, and max for each of the 4 loops it makes. To run the benchmark just go into your:

hard drive/program files/Electronic Arts/Crytek/Crysis/bin32 folder and you will see 2 CPU benchmarks and a GPU benchmark. The one that I used for comparison is the GPU benchmark.

Best,

3Ball

This guide may help you with the OC'ing. http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/ [...] uals-guide

Best,

3Ball

3Ball...you are the greatest ;o)

I have already tried the patch, and it is running WAY better already. However I really need to to try the oc'ing, now when I finally have a decent piece of machinery, that are prepared for it.

I will try the benchmarking and post the result.

BR
Tonny

Glad I could help. GL with it and keep us posted.

Best,

3Ball

SLi makes a huge difference for crysis. Overclocking your card will only gain you a tiny fraction of what SLI will do as dual 8800GT kicks an Ultra's butt in Crysis. I see a 55% increase at 1680x1050 2xaa/16xaf and high details. But still don't expect to max everything even with two cards. Two 8800 ultras won't even allow very high details with fsaa at 16x12 res.
http://www.firingsquad.com/hardwar [...] /page4.asp


Not sure on your resolution, but look how in DX 10 with Vista 64-bit, two 8800GT scale very well in this test. At 16x10 high, they measured 26 fps for one card and 43 fps for two cards.
http://www.legionhardware.com/docu [...] id=716&p=3

Tried the GPU benchmark, result 24-38 fps

This is standard settings. I will get a new cooler before I try the oc'ing.

Any experiences , good or bad, with the new Thermalright IFX-14 ? Or should I stick with some older, proven versions as the Thermalright 120 Ultra or CM geminII ?

Do I need to change the cooler on the GPU ? I have the ASUS 8800 GT it has an "orb" type approx. 130mm diameter, with a 80mm fan. It looks effective ;o))