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The $900 PC Crysis Challenge (By Crytek)

Gattsu25

Banned
Building a similar rig for ~950USD before rebates

Every part, sans monitor, is new plus extra cooling (not for overclocking, just to ensure that I never have to worry about heat)
 

1-D_FTW

Member
RubberJohnny said:
How much does it cost if you don't build the computer yourself?

IMO, if you're not competent enough to build your own PC, you probably wanna stick to consoles. PC gaming does require the occasional trouble shooting, and it's a good litmus test as to whether you can handle it or not. That may sound snobbish, but in my experience it's true.
 

Oneself

Member
I remember reading Resistance (among others) reviews saying: "Is this game really worth 600 bucks?"... and now we have people saying that 900$ is affordable for Crysis. :lol
 

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
strange_booj said:
I just built a system for around $980 that runs Crysis on Very high with 2x AA. I get a fair frame rate of 20-30 framesPS.

I don't know why everyone bitches so much about needing an expensive rig to play this game. Yes 1k is a lot, but not much more than you would pay for any typical Dell or Best Buy computer.
You're making a mistake then. Turn that 2x AA off. Seriously. It's worthless.

Now, if you are talking about EDGE AA (built into Crysis), that is different. I use "r_useedgeaa 2" within the game. This improves the appearance of foliage. Regular AA only applies to hard structures, not foliage, and it has a MASSIVE impact on performance. It simply isn't worth it. I'd highly recommend using edge AA and disabling regular AA if that's not already what you are doing.

What CryTek is showing us is nice, but you can have even better visuals without a significant drain on performance. I don't understand why they disable so many visual features in DX9. I mean, object motion blur is slightly broken in DX9, so I can understand why it isn't included (it also kills framerates), but many other Very High features work flawlessly and are locked out.

The simplest ones are things like sunshafts, which is a beautiful effect that has little impact on performance. Why not use it? How about depth of field at maximum? This adds a nice smooth effect to distant objects that is very subtle but really improves distant image quality. What about parallax occlusion mapping? It's disabled in their video, yet it looks awesome and barely impacts the framerate. I also find their default lighting choices to be odd. The engine is capable of so much more, yet things look somewhat bland by default. By upping things like SSAO darkening and the HDR, you can create vivid contrasts and much more impressive landscapes. At the very least, they could have offered different "appearance" settings (ala Far Cry and most UE3 games).

Their game can look insane on regular PC hardware, but their default "high" settings don't quite cut it. The current "Very High" should have been bumped up to "Ultra" and a happy medium between High and Very High should have been introduced.

I remember reading Resistance (among others) reviews saying: "Is this game really worth 600 bucks?"... and now we have people saying that 900$ is affordable for Crysis.
You don't buy for one game, though. I've gotten so much use out of my new PC already. I love it. Crysis was one of many reasons. I've discovered that many console games perform far better on a fast PC than they did in their original format. All UE3 games, for instance, run at a rock solid 60 fps on my machine with cleaner image quality. All of these new games even have perfect support for the 360 pad (you can turn it on during the game and immediately start using it just like a console). That works for those who wish to maintain the console feel.
 

Evander

"industry expert"
1-D_FTW said:
IMO, if you're not competent enough to build your own PC, you probably wanna stick to consoles. PC gaming does require the occasional trouble shooting, and it's a good litmus test as to whether you can handle it or not. That may sound snobbish, but in my experience it's true.

Competence has NOTHING to do with PC building. I built my own PC, and I am ENTIRELY incompetent.
 

Gattsu25

Banned
1-D_FTW said:
IMO, if you're not competent enough to build your own PC, you probably wanna stick to consoles. PC gaming does require the occasional trouble shooting, and it's a good litmus test as to whether you can handle it or not. That may sound snobbish, but in my experience it's true.
:lol (Don't listen to this guy)

It'll cost around $50-100 if you know the person building the PC, provided you have all the parts and cables (thermal paste is cheap (~$6) and important)
 

Vitet

Member
I'm going to get rid of Vista (64)

I get only a bit more performance than this PC but with a E6850, 4GBx800 & 8800Ultra...
 

Borys

Banned
Oneself said:
I remember reading Resistance (among others) reviews saying: "Is this game really worth 600 bucks?"... and now we have people saying that 900$ is affordable for Crysis. :lol

For starters you could be playing thousands and thousands of games on that $900 PC.

PC can simply do so much more than a console, even the best one and I am not talking about graphics at all.
 

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
Vitet said:
I'm going to get rid of Vista (64)

I get only a bit more performance than this PC but with a E6850, 4GBx800 & 8800Ultra...
Why get rid of it? It will come in handy eventually and the OS itself will run faster on your machine. I think you'll be surprised to find that XP will not run anywhere near as quickly as Vista does on the right hardware.

If you are seeing your PC run just a bit faster, well, that's pretty accurate. Crysis IS demanding and there isn't going to be much of a difference between the rig they've built and what you are using. The 8800 Ultra will probably only net you an extra couple of frames per second and the CPU really doesn't make a difference with the game (when we're talking such small increases in speed).

You won't be able to use that much ram with XP either, but it wouldn't have had any impact on Crysis to begin with (2GB is more than ample for Crysis).
 

Olivier

Member
1-D_FTW said:
IMO, if you're not competent enough to build your own PC, you probably wanna stick to consoles. PC gaming does require the occasional trouble shooting, and it's a good litmus test as to whether you can handle it or not.

This is why I don't have a car: I'm a terrible mechanic.
 

Evander

"industry expert"
Borys said:
For starters you could be playing thousands and thousands of games on that $900 PC.

PC can simply do so much more than a console, even the best one and I am not talking about graphics at all.

The thing is, you can play MOST of those games on a cheaper machine.

The rig I built for ~$600 can run the Crysis demo perfectly at medium settings, or with a choppy framerate at high. This is mostly because I refuse to splurge on a top of the line video card that is going to be outdated in a matter of months. I have basically the cheapest video card you can get and still have DX10. I only got that video card by chance, because when I first built the PC, back during the summer, even it was too expensive, but the card I had was causing scompatability issues, and making my PC reboot/freezeup, so I eventually had to replace it.



That's the thing with PC gaming. You have to keep upgrading to get top of the line games. That's why I use my PC for things like Sam & Max or Darwinia, and save the more intensive games for my consoles, where I know that they'll run without having to go buy a new video card, or having to double my RAM, or needed to spend hours troubleshoot driver incompatabilities.
 
xabre said:
Yeah those 2 next-gen consoles (and the Wii) are just so awesome for video encoding, 3D rendering, audio composition, internet surfing, CAD, email, creating and printing documents, running spreadsheets, doing about a billion other things only PCs can do and WoW.

PS3 + Linux.
 

Oneself

Member
Borys said:
For starters you could be playing thousands and thousands of games on that $900 PC.

PC can simply do so much more than a console, even the best one and I am not talking about graphics at all.

Indeed, but I guess that if that PC runs more than just Windows+Crysis, especially if its HDD is loaded with lots of games etc., the results won't be the same.
 

Ponn

Banned
I wouldn't pay a thousand (or 900) to build a computer 5 years ago to play pc games and certainly won't start now for 1 game.

Sorry, but as the line blurs farther and farther with consoles and PC's the only purpose I need of a 200 walmart PC is internet surfing and a media hub.
 

bee

Member
Evander said:
This is mostly because I refuse to splurge on a top of the line video card that is going to be outdated in a matter of months. I have basically the cheapest

8800 gts/gtx came out 14 months ago and still plays everything out there fine on max settings

_leech_ said:
PS3 + Linux.

wahahha
 

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
Oneself said:
Indeed, but I guess that if that PC runs more than just Windows+Crysis, especially if its HDD is loaded with lots of games etc., the results won't be the same.
Not true.

I've found that Vista is a shockingly optimized OS. It is more demanding up front, but even with everything I've installed, performance remains just as fast now as it was when I first built it. Crysis has taken no impact in performance.
 

Draft

Member
_leech_ said:
PS3 + Linux.
:lol holy shit I think he's serious too.
Ponn01 said:
Sorry, but as the line blurs farther and farther with consoles and PC's the only purpose I need of a 200 walmart PC is internet surfing and a media hub.
You don't have to apologize. The only one you're hurting is yourself.
 

65536

Banned
Hmm, the animation looks nice and fluid still, and I guess it's playable, but I wouldn't say it's running well on that machine, with all the tearing / framedropping.

Doesn't look quite so amazing on high either, especially with all the pop-in.

How far off are we from a system that can run very high at a minimum of 60fps? The next generation of GPUs?
 

Evander

"industry expert"
Seriously, though, it takes no skill to build a PC these days.

I even have water cooling in my rig (the self-contained Aquagate Viva system from Cooler Master.) I rarely have CPU temps above 30.

Most componants these days are built to just snap together. The toughest part of building a PC is installing the CPU to the mobo, and putting on your heatsink, and even that is made insanely simple by CPU/mobo combos you can buy, and the availability of thermal pads as a substitution to thermal paste.

Honestly, though, I WOULD recommend building your own machine over buying a store bought to anyone who has the time (takes a bit of time to research which parts you want + a little more if you are thrifty/budget constrained like me, and want to find the best prices. Also, it took me a full day to put my machine together and run some initial tests, plus more time to install the OS and other essential software/drivers.) The benefits to building your own machine are plentiful, though. For one, you save not only on the individual parts, but also because you don't have to pay for non-essentials that you may bestuck with on a store bought. This includes certain peripherals, like a dial-up modem, or an on-board video card built in to your mobo., but also pack-in software, which you have to pay for, but may not want, or ever use. I also, personally, sleep easier with the piece of mind that iTunes has never, and will never, beeen installed on my PC. You also have a bit more pride in your acomplishment, and understand your PC a little better, so that if something does go wrong, you can fix it yourself, rather than having to pay some one to fix the minor little problems.

Honestly, the most trouble I've had with my PC is simply internal wire management, with certain cables being just a little shorter than I'd like. This is only because I didn't bother buying all new cables, but used whatever I could from what I already had lying around in an older store-built machine that I canabalized (the impetus for my build came from my five year old Gateway suddenly dying.)
 

Evander

"industry expert"
_leech_ said:
So, wait, running Ubuntu on the PS3 doesn't let you surf the net, check email, create and print documents, or run spreadsheets? Wow, the more you learn...

I can do all of things things (with the exception of printing) on my cellphone, which I actually got at a negative price, after rebates.
 

Ponn

Banned
Draft said:
You don't have to apologize. The only one you're hurting is yourself.

Not really. Since i'm not made of money spending that much on a PC would mean I couldn't afford a PS3 or Xbox 360. For me I made the right decison.
 

Draft

Member
_leech_ said:
So, wait, running Ubuntu on the PS3 doesn't let you surf the net, check email, create and print documents, or run spreadsheets? Wow, the more you learn...
Hahaha, you ARE serious. You actually do that shit on your PS3? Crazy. Well God bless you son, it takes all kinds.
 

Gattsu25

Banned
andrewfee said:
Hmm, the animation looks nice and fluid still, and I guess it's playable, but I wouldn't say it's running well on that machine, with all the tearing / framedropping.

Doesn't look quite so amazing on high either
, especially with all the pop-in.

How far off are we from a system that can run very high at a minimum of 60fps? The next generation of GPUs?
...

I wanted to laugh
 

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
andrewfee said:
Hmm, the animation looks nice and fluid still, and I guess it's playable, but I wouldn't say it's running well on that machine, with all the tearing / framedropping.

Doesn't look quite so amazing on high either, especially with all the pop-in.

How far off are we from a system that can run very high at a minimum of 60fps? The next generation of GPUs?
Those videos are nothing.

First of all, those quicktimes are insanely demanding. My Crysis PC can display them, but my Centrino Duo laptop could barely display the video without constantly chopping up and tearing. The videos are recorded at a framerate higher than 30 fps, it would seem, as they were much smoother on my rig at home and did not exhibit tearing. The performance issues you witnessed were your PC struggling with the video. :p It's odd that they wanted to demonstrate performance and then went with such a demanding codec.

The game can look MUCH better than that with very little performance loss. These shots are taken in DX9 mode with custom CVARs in place. Performance is generally smoother than 30 fps. I should also note that animation becomes far more impressive with object motion blur (some cutscenes look like pre-renders). As expected, the shots look quite a bit worse to my eye viewing them on this LCD I'm using. On my CRT, the colors are much richer. I've also further enhanced my config since snapping these.

ScreenShot0041.jpg

ScreenShot0022.jpg

ScreenShot0026.jpg

ScreenShot0042.jpg


Also, take a look at these shots and you'll notice how much improvement can be made over what CryTek uses as a default...

ct1.jpg

ct2.jpg

ct3.jpg
 

Haunted

Member
Crysis isn't worth the $900, but there are a thousand other reasons why you should get a competent gaming PC, so I approve of this. Also, got to root for the home team and stuff. :p


Nabs said:
My computer can't even play those videos properly :(
:lol

DKnight said:
Get a second job and problem solved!
Yours sincerely,
Krazy Ken.
:lol
 
Wow the same tired ignorant responses, you can tell it's a pc thread :/ Anyhow, you can get it for even cheaper than $900 considering most people already have some of that stuff.
 

Skenzin

Banned
Sadly Crysis is one of the only PC games worth building a $900 machine to play. Most PC devs see PC gaming as in a slump and are targetting consoles first. When epic sells less than 100k copies of UT3 on the PC and missed selling millions on the 360 I can't blame them.

I blame mmorpgs, $500 video cards, and piracy for bringing PC gaming to the breaking point.
 

cakefoo

Member
xabre said:
Yeah those 2 next-gen consoles (and the Wii) are just so awesome for video encoding, 3D rendering, audio composition, internet surfing, CAD, email, creating and printing documents, running spreadsheets, doing about a billion other things only PCs can do and WoW.
But the computer I have can already do that stuff.
 
Draft said:
Hahaha, you ARE serious. You actually do that shit on your PS3? Crazy. Well God bless you son, it takes all kinds.

Personally, I don't, but you can. The argument was the you could only do those things on a PC. Fuck, look up, even a cell phone can compete apparently.
 

Jirotrom

Member
Crytek really fucked up when they were constantly preaching you would need bleeding edge to run that game. It was a marketing mistake on their part and now they are trying to change that message. Good luck Crytek.
 

Evander

"industry expert"
monkspider said:
QFT

The myth of Visa being some highly inefficient resource hog needs to die. Like yesterday.

The problem with Vista isn't resources, it's compatability.

It's to be expected with ANY new OS, but it still stops me from wanting to jump on board before it's been patched a bit, and the rest of the market has gotten familiar with working with it.
 

Draft

Member
_leech_ said:
Personally, I don't, but you can. The argument was the you could only do those things on a PC. Fuck, look up, even a cell phone can compete apparently.
That's right, you don't, and no one else does either. The cell phone can now browse the web, but everyone still needs their terminal to update myspace and type long, angry forum posts about how PC gaming is awesome. No alternative to the traditional desktop/laptop PC has yet to actually surpass it in terms of usability, which is why the PC is still ubiquitous.
 

Hunahan

Banned
Strange that they went to all that trouble just to show off videos that...well...frankly aren't very impressive.

High settings may let you play the game, but they hardly blow the doors down.

Also, the whole "a computer also surfs the web and processes documents" argument is lame. Problem remains - most people already have a computer that can do basically everything they could ever need besides these fancy high-end video games, so all of those new components? It comes across as a $900 video game expense just the same.

Combining the two, you get a $900 video game that sure doesn't look like a $900 video game. Bad mix.

And this is coming from someone who's already running a 8800/dual core/DX10 machine. If it can't even look like a justifiable argument to me...well.......I'd say the pitch was poorly made eh.
 
"The problem with Vista isn't resources, it's compatability.

It's to be expected with ANY new OS, but it still stops me from wanting to jump on board before it's been patched a bit, and the rest of the market has gotten familiar with working with it."


And what horrible compatability issues are you experiencing?
 
My PC matches almost perfectly the configuration gave by Crytek, except for CPU, i have a 6550...
there is a big difference between 6550 and 6750 ?
 

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
Vitet said:
I NEEED that custom config :O
Try this...

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=9256118&postcount=533

You need to create a system.cfg file and place that in the root of your Crysis folder.

I'd also recommend changing...

r_ssao_darkening = 1.2

to

r_ssao_darkening = 2 or
r_ssao_darkening = 3

It should produce results like that pic, but at a smooth framerate. If you need further performance improvements switch

r_motionblur = 4

to

r_motionblur = 3
 

65536

Banned
dark10x said:
Those videos are nothing.

First of all, those quicktimes are insanely demanding. My Crysis PC can display them, but my Centrino Duo laptop could barely display the video without constantly chopping up and tearing. The videos are recorded at a framerate higher than 30 fps, it would seem, as they were much smoother on my rig at home and did not exhibit tearing. The performance issues you witnessed were your PC struggling with the video. :p It's odd that they wanted to demonstrate performance and then went with such a demanding codec.
Well, Quicktime was saying it was running at a locked 60fps (the video) so I don't think that was the problem. (I checked that it was running ok as the fans spun up)

I'm not sure about those comparison shots though. In the custom one, the HDR seems very over-exaggerated, but the Crysis defaults do seem a bit "off" too.

I guess we're ages away from running v.high at 60fps then?
 
The hardware market will have to evolve in a diferent way sonner or later. It's kinda sad but I doubt we'll ever see another game like Crysis, pushing foward the hardware and betting on that future hardware.
 
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