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How to Optimize Crysis Guide (stock ATi)

M

Mercuric Oxide

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 6, 2008
277
26
NYC
Hi Guys,

I wanted to share some tips with everyone which drastically improved my Crysis game performance on my Mac Pro (Early 2008). This is for the people who want to test the stock ATi card with their system now. By all means, get the nvidia 8800GT if you want to enable your system to play this game at its best. This guide also helps the performance of other games. If you don't own Crysis and simply want to test your system as a gaming platform, download the single player demo at:

http://www.gamedaily.com/games/crysis/pc/game-downloads/crysis-single-player-demo/4960/7238/


My Specs:
Mac Pro, 2 x 2.8 GHz QC Intel Xeon (the Ocho), 6GB 800 MHz RAM, ATi HD 2600XT RAM
(Don't worry, my 8800GT is on order ;) )

Before:
1024 x 768 Resolution, All Medium Settings, Avg 16 fps
1440 x 900 Resolution, Medium-High-Very High Mix Avg 4 fps :eek:
massive clipping and glitches

After:
1024 x 768 Resolution, All Medium Settings, Avg 29 fps
1440 x 900 Resolution, All High/Very High (excp shdws/shdrs), Avg 16 fps
no graphic glitches or artifacts

The ATi GPU is the clear bottleneck in the new Mac Pro system, but the MP architecture will help compensate until your 8800GT arrives.


Guide (while running Windows):

Boot Camp is a must for this game. I recommend playing on Windows XP, as that provides about 5-10+ fps over Vista. Very High mode is only available on Vista, but you can rewrite your CVAR files to enable Very High (This deletes the Low settings, so Medium becomes your new minimum -->choose Low for Medium settings, etc).
Instructions and file download are here (can be applied to demo version as well):

http://mrgnome.wordpress.com/2008/0...ry-high-dx10-settings-in-xp-new-updated-hack/


The next section will deal with updating your ATi GPU, but first, update your .NET Framework so that it installs:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...FD-AE52-4E35-B531-508D977D32A6&displaylang=en


Now, before you play the game, make sure you have the latest drivers from ATi. This is crucial and the main factor that increased my performance. ATi's site doesn't have the drivers listed under the apple section, you must download it from the PC section. Download and install Option 1 Catalyst Software Suite:

http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx?p=xp/radeonx-xp


And with those simple steps, you're ready to play Crysis! 1024 x 768 resolution all Medium is the best mix of performance/graphics, but you can still try out 1440 x 900 all High and have it not play like a slide show.
 
Game Settings

These are the game settings for Crysis in the advanced options:

Texture Quality
Objects Quality
Shadows Quality
Physics Quality
Shaders Quality
Volumetric Effects Quality
Game Effects Quality
Post Processing Quality
Particles Quality
Water Quality
Sound Quality
Motion Blur

Typical rules of thumb:

DO NOT turn Shadows or Shaders past Medium settings with the ATi. Doing so will reduce your frame rate by up to 10 fps. Please wait until the nvidia 8800GT ships to crank up these settings.

Post Processing can be placed on Low to Medium.

If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask.

My settings are:

Resolution: 1440 x 900

Texture Quality: Very High
Objects Quality: Very High
Shadows Quality: Medium
Physics Quality: Very High
Shaders Quality: Medium
Volumetric Effects Quality: Very High
Game Effects Quality: High
Post Processing Quality: High
Particles Quality: High
Water Quality: Very High
Sound Quality: High
Motion Blur: High

I will post pics next, and eventually, youtube video links.

Enjoy
 
Pics

Pics are low quality
 

Attachments

  • Crysis 2008-02-04 05-03-01-04.jpg
    Crysis 2008-02-04 05-03-01-04.jpg
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Click the images to view them in full quality.

And I almost forgot, with ATi, 0 x AA or risk your game crashing!
 
Please Don't Flame

Before I get flamed:

I know the Mac Pro is a professional machine, and I use it at such. However, I enjoy games on the side, and when one comes that taxes high end systems, I like to put my machine to the test.

Also, these types of posts are severely lacking. I always find myself searching for gaming info on the mac, but can never find it. I hope this post helps those who are trying to game on their Mac (which in 2008, is not much to ask).

Thanks
 
Yes, I was quite shocked at the ATi's performance.

With the 8800GT being more than twice as powerful..

::insert trembling in boots smilie::
 
So, does this ATI card compare to a PS3? :D
Is a 8800 GT equal to a PS3?
Good job, that ATI card is still a good card. Most people underestimate it.
 
kabunaru said:
So, does this ATI card compare to a PS3? :D
Is a 8800 GT equal to a PS3?
Good job, that ATI card is still a good card. Most people underestimate it.
Click to expand...

As you can tell from the pics, the ATi coupled with the Mac Pro is stronger than a PS3 (although, Crysis is the only game that can demonstrate this, and under high settings).

With a Mac Pro with 8800GT and Crysis at Very High settings, you'll be viewing graphics greater than 1.5 x a PS3/360.

View some videos on youtube that have 8800 Ultras in SLI, those approach photorealism in some scenes (like the forests).
 
But you need Vista for DX10 support. You're not getting the full benefit of Crysis or the 8800GT if you use XP. (For future reference, of course)
 
Banacek said:
But you need Vista for DX10 support. You're not getting the full benefit of Crysis or the 8800GT if you use XP. (For future reference, of course)
Click to expand...

Enabling Very High adds some features from DX10. Vista and true DX10 are not worth 10 fps.

Anyway, I made some videos, I will post them to Youtube later tonight.
 
Mercuric Oxide said:
Enabling Very High adds some features from DX10. Vista and true DX10 are not worth 10 fps.

Anyway, I made some videos, I will post them to Youtube later tonight.
Click to expand...

But don't be surprised in 10 months when 'Vista Only!' games start popping up.
 
Man, the Youtube quality SUCKS.

You can tell there's a steady frame rate, but you can't see the graphics in all their glory.

Anyone know how to upload to youtube and not lose as much quality?

Anyway, here's Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0N3CVb5yMI

Hopefully the quality will be better in Part 2 as it's a little larger.
 
Awesome stuff! Thanks for taking the time to post this delicious info and screens. I too like to play a little on the side and was wondering what I could push it to, if need be. This only makes me jones even more for the 8800GT :cool:
 
For the record, this is awesome. I just wanted to send a warning out to users that MS is definitely going to make games in the near future that need Vista. I mean, that's how MS makes their money :)
 
Ok, I'm using a Youtube program to upload files larger than 100 mb, hopefully it comes out well.
I'll post when Part 3 is finished
 
Youtube quality or not, I think it looks really good. Thanks for taking the time to post those videos!
 
Yeah I must say I'm impressed, I wasn't expecting it to run that well on the ATI card.
 
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