8800 Series and Crysis - Are they just poor DX10 performers?

[Recall]

Are these cards poor DX10 performers or are there some serious optimisation issues with this game?

I am a frustrated gamer here whom has spend a small fortune getting his system ready for this game. Am I going to have to wait til next gen to get the performance?

I read that DX10 was supposed to perform better, with less horsepower needed for better graphics. Also unified shader architecture was supposed to the way forward.

Yet in Crysis I can neither run AA nor AF without taking a totally ridiculous hit in performance. How long are we looking before a card is capable of running this maxxed?

I have already done some testing and found the game is very CPU dependent and responds well to a sizeable overclock. I have not messed with GPU overclocking for now.

System I run on is

E6600 @ 3ghz
4GB Ram
X-FI Soundcard
8800GTS 640mb
Vista 64bit Ultimate

So am I waiting for G92 and what specific part of the gpu architecture would need improving to make this game run well?

 

[Moloch]

It's a "next gen" game dude, what do you expect?

 

[AlphaWolf]

It's a "next gen" game dude, what do you expect?

He probably has silly expectations like it being playable on a high end computer.

 

[ChrisRay]

Crysis unfortunately is gonna redefine some expectations regarding graphic performance this year. Fortunately its going to be an exception rather than the norm.

 

[Andrew Lauritzen]

What exactly are you testing? The beta doesn't even have Direct3D 10 (it's all 9), so you can't even begin to comment on how that performs...

[Edit] Whoah okay apparently the demo is out today... is that what you are testing? I have a pretty similar system to yours (well, the same except I have GTX), so I'll DL it and see whether I have the same problems.

 

[Sound_Card]

The demo can run on DX10.

 

[AlNom]

<brit voice> Sometimes I wonder why devs bother to spend so much on high quality content that would keep the game looking great years down the road when they should only include assets for the high end of the "here and now" just so people are satisfied "here and now" and forced into not pumping the settings to infinity billion meant to be done later on with the release of more powerful hardware that would give the impression that they're getting great value over time for the money being spent on single game.

Sometimes. Not all the time. </ rant>


That said, what settings are you trying to use in D3D10 mode? (resolution, advanced settings). I suspect there is a fair amount of misconception as to what D3D10 offers and what the newer driver model offers for D3D9 in Vista...

 

[Recall]

Crysis unfortunately is gonna redefine some expectations regarding graphic performance this year. Fortunately its going to be an exception rather than the norm.

I hope so, it seems a crazy level to set things at. Is it possible that because ATI failed to produce a killer card against the GTX that nVidia have held back on releasing the 9800?

Seems to me this game came out before the hardware was ready.

What exactly are you testing? The beta doesn't even have Direct3D 10 (it's all 9), so you can't even begin to comment on how that performs...

[Edit] Whoah okay apparently the demo is out today... is that what you are testing? I have a pretty similar system to yours (well, the same except I have GTX), so I'll DL it and see whether I have the same problems.

Yup I had the beta, and also got the full game. I know you and chris know your stuff. So any feedback on what is required would be gladly appreciated.

BTW Andy if you are using Vista 64bit, download the latest 169.01 beta drivers and do not run the 64bit executable or it will crash.

Also on the same settings there is a massive difference in performance between DX10 and DX9. Seems something is not right?

 

[Recall]

<brit voice> Sometimes I wonder why devs bother to spend so much on high quality content that would keep the game looking great years down the road when they should only include assets for the high end of the "here and now" just so people are satisfied "here and now" and forced into not pumping the settings to infinity billion meant to be done later on with the release of more powerful hardware that would give the impression that they're getting great value over time for the money being spent on single game.

Sometimes. Not all the time. </ rant>


That said, what settings are you trying to use in D3D10 mode? (resolution, advanced settings). I suspect there is a fair amount of misconception as to what D3D10 offers and what the newer driver model offers for D3D9 in Vista...

I would prefer the here and now with various improvements that dont push things beyond reach

Settings are all high ( the detected optimal settings ) no aa/af ( massive hit if used ) and DX10. Also resolution used is 1680X1050.

 

[fellix]

Crysis is the same "phenomenae" in the gaming world, as Unreal was ten years ago: way over-loaded engine, much like a showcase for the near-future trend of the industry, at all. To recall the memories again, Unreal back then was delayed for one year just for the reason, that the sufficient hardware wasn't available commodity to the mass market.

On the driver side, Nvidia already rolled out two sets of drivers containing Crysis optimizations. At least, as a part of TWIMTBP programme, Crytek should have provided them with premium early game samples to work on.

 

[AlNom]

On the CPU issue:

http://www.shacknews.com/featuredarticle.x?id=639

Shack: Is there dedicated support for 64-bit and dual- and quad-core processors, and if so how does the game distribute its tasks? Do you suggest a higher-clocked dual-core over a quad-core, or is quad-core performance enough to give it the edge?

Cevat Yerli: We support both 64-bit and multi-cores. Multi-core will be beneficial in the experience, particularly in faster but also smoother framerates. 64-bit and higher memory will yield quicker loading times. We recommend quad core over higher clock.

Shack: What is the main limiter for Crysis in terms of GPU, CPU, or RAM? If users are near the low end of the requirements, which should they upgrade first?

Cevat Yerli: We would say first CPU, then GPU, then memory. But it must be in balance. If you are balanced, we are more CPU bound then GPU, but at the same time at higher CPU configurations we scale very well for GPUs.

Bolding/italics are my edits.

 

[Andrew Lauritzen]

Yup I had the beta, and also got the full game. I know you and chris know your stuff. So any feedback on what is required would be gladly appreciated.

Don't get me wrong - I know D3D10 and that the same code as in D3D9 will generally run slightly faster in D3D10 (in some cases, a lot faster!), but I'm no Crysis expert.

BTW Andy if you are using Vista 64bit, download the latest 169.01 beta drivers and do not run the 64bit executable or it will crash.

Cool, good to know... downloading those now.

Also on the same settings there is a massive difference in performance between DX10 and DX9. Seems something is not right?

Yeah I dunno what specifically Crysis is doing, but you have to be wary of making those sorts of comparisons since usually in D3D10 mode the developers seem to like to bump up the graphical quality regardless of the other settings. For instance in CoH the D3D10 mode is more of a "super high quality" mode than an API choice. Dunno about Crysis though.

 

[Recall]

On the CPU issue:

http://www.shacknews.com/featuredarticle.x?id=639

Bolding/italics are my edits.

Yup, but I disagree about CPU clocking having no effect. It made a huge boost in the Beta.

As to quad I am waiting for the native ones, as I dont feel the current Conroes will offer much difference.

Don't get me wrong - I know D3D10 and that the same code as in D3D9 will generally run slightly faster in D3D10 (in some cases, a lot faster!), but I'm no Crysis expert.


Cool, good to know... downloading those now.


Yeah I dunno what specifically Crysis is doing, but you have to be wary of making those sorts of comparisons since usually in D3D10 mode the developers seem to like to bump up the graphical quality regardless of the other settings. For instance in CoH the D3D10 mode is more of a "super high quality" mode than an API choice. Dunno about Crysis though.

Fair point about comparisons. Maybe this code path and running faster is the reason for DX9 performing faster?

Anyone what I am looking for and the specific reason I posted here is to find out what the achilies heal is of the 8800 in regards to performance in this game. It would help me understand a bit more and also make sure I look out for improvements in that part when nVidia and ATI release DX10.1 high end cards.

 

[AlNom]

Yup, but I disagree about CPU clocking having no effect. It made a huge boost in the Beta.

He's talking about choosing Quad core over a higher clocked dual/single core. That doesn't negate your performance increase seen by overclocking your dual core. Obviously it's a CPU limited game so any single-threaded speed enhancement will help, it's just that in your CPU choice in the market, typically the dual/single cores have a higher clock than those of a quad core.

 

[Moloch]

He probably has silly expectations like it being playable on a high end computer.

It plays fine my 8800gts with a 2.5ghz dual core opty 2GB system fine on medium

 

[2900guy]

It plays fine my 8800gts with a 2.5ghz dual core opty 2GB system fine on medium

yeah, it plays fine on my 8600 GT also




































using 800x600 LOW everything. People are talking about playing it with playable framerates and having it look as good as all the hype videos crytek has released. which is impossible.

 

[AlphaWolf]

It plays fine my 8800gts with a 2.5ghz dual core opty 2GB system fine on medium

Good for you, but its not really contributing to the discussion of the problems he's (The OP) experiencing using AA/AF.

 

[fellix]

CPU load under DX10 environment is definitely not a big issue -- we are talking about 20% load per core on Q6600 . Actually, the game can't stress enough even a mainstream dual-core part.

 

[Robin B]

Hmm this Demo dont run well on my Guad at 3,8 Ghz with 4 Gig mem and a overclocked GTX with Vista X64, would like to know what card that could run this game well in the future, dont see that would happend anythime soon.

 

[AlNom]

Good for you, but its not really contributing to the discussion of the problems he's (The OP) experiencing using AA/AF.

I couldn't get the AA settings to stick on an 8800GTS 320MB in WinXP, but I suppose I should have tried using the beta drivers... Oh well, I still need to get a better CPU anyway.