Crysis - How To Benchmark

Latest (maybe last) Uber Spec PC Game

Crysis releases this week and it is probably one of the last uber PC games to be released for a long time. That's right, the game will not be seen on any console as it's spec requirements are greater than the current generation can handle.

That is not a glowing endorsement for anyone with aging PC hardware. As anyone who has played a next gen console port on their PC knows; those ports can drag performance down on anything but the fastest PCs.

The game has been in development for a few years but Crytek has stated that the game will scale across a wide range of PC hardware. Scale is a rather ambiguous word here. It really is dependent on what you are willing to settle for. What visuals and resolution you are willing to play in.

Built in Benchmark

If running your games at anything under 1600x1200 with 4xAA and 4xAf is an abomination, stop right here. It doens't matter if you're using the latest DX9 or DX10 hardware in XP or Vista. The Crysis game engine is going to stress hardware that hasn't hit the market yet.

If you're still on the fence on buying Crysis because of concerns these uber hardware requirements. You owe it to yourself to download the single player demo just to benchmark it against your current hardware.

In your game directory there are two batch files to benchmark your CPU and GPU.
Both of these are in the BIN32 directory. One is the Benchmark_CPU.BAT and Benchmark_GPU.BAT.

What you may want to do before running these is go into the games option screen and adjust the settings to your liking. Otherwise the game defaults to a low settings and 1024x768. Once you get the settings that you would like - exit the game and then run the benchmarks tests.

Both benchmarks run 4x each. You will see your FPS statistics on screen throughout the benchmark. At the end it will give you a final score in avg FPS and Max FPS.

Sample Benchmarks

Game options settings
1280x1024, No AA, No AF. All Settings on High

Core 2 Duo (Dual) E6400 2.13GHz (OC 3.4Ghz) 2 Gig System Ram, 8800 GTS 640MB
CPU Bench - 26.28 Avg FPS
36.58 Max FPS

GPU Bench - 27.86 Avg FPS
32.90 Max FPS

Core 2 Duo(Quad) E6600 2.4GHz (OC 3.2GHz) 2 Gig System Ram, 8800 GT 512 MB
CPU Bench - 39.23 Avg FPS
55.64 Max FPS

GPU Bench - 41.59 Avg FPS
49.88 Max FPS

The first thing to note is that the Crysis engine does utilize the more CPUs you throw at it. It's arguable that the additional CPUs are making a significant difference as they are being under utilized. They aren't even close to doubling performance but in gaming, 10 FPS can make or break the immersion experience.

On another note the 8800 GT vs the 8800 GTS. Considering that the GT is priced to be lower than its GTS counterpart, the GPU Bench proves it is the card to buy. It's liited to 512 MB DDR3 memory compared to the GTS's 640, but thats largely a resolution advantage that this game won't allow anyway. 8800 GT are the cards to go with if you can get one without paying an outrageous price because of short supply.

Whether or not Crysis is a commercial success for Crytek remains to be seen. It's tough for PC game developers these days. Whatever the outcome, you can bet that the game engine will be a cornerstone benchmark for PC hardware sites for a few years.