Crysis 2 PC Performance Analysis

By on March 2, 2011

Crytek has finally released the multiplayer PC demo of Crysis 2, so it’s time to see how it performs to the PC platform. As always, you used a Q9650 @ 4.2Ghz with 4GB DDR2 and a GTX295. We didn’t bother with Nvidia’s latest ForceWare drivers, as the team didn’t include the right executable filename to the game’s profile. So let’s see if Crysis 2 is the next graphical juggernaut. Is the engine optimized for multicores and how does it scale with SLI?

Let’s get one thing straight from the beginning. We won’t judge the gameplay decisions that Crytek took with this sequel. We won’t also discuss about whether Nanosuit 2.0 is better than Nanosuit 1.0, nor if the game is a COD/Halo clone. This is not a review/preview or whatever you may be hopping to. This is just a performance analysis.

Crysis 2 uses Crytek’s latest game engine, CryEngine 3. And we have to say that we are really impressed with it. The engine takes full advantage of multicores and scales incredibly to quadcores. It also scales amazingly with SLI systems. In order to enable the SLI, you’ll have to use the Nvidia Inspector tool. Simply open it, find the Crysis 2 profile and add the demo’s executable filename. Don’t bother with either ForceWare 267.24 and EVGA’s SLI patch, as both of them have a Crysis 2 profile with incorrect filenames.

Performance is great. We were averaging around 50-90fps at 1080p with hardcore settings. Our GPU was used to its fullest and our CPU usage was around 60-80%. We tried to simulate a dualcore system by disabling two of our cores and performance dropped to 40-70fps. However, we were quite shocked as our two remaining cores were stressed like never before. We’re talking about 100% CPU usage. We’ve never seen anything like this. Well, apart from various stress CPU programs. So if you have a dualcore system, you can be sure that Crysis 2 will stress it like never before.

But what about the graphics? Well, it’s hard to say. Crysis 2’s lighting is amazing, as are its soft particles effects, SSAO, sunrays, HDR and the Global Illumination implementation. We also have highly detailed characters and environments. Most of the textures are high-res, but there are some vegetation textures that are simply horrible. Those few low-resolution textures really remind us of Crysis 1 with its low-res rocks and leafs Take a look at the screenshot bellow to get an idea of what we’re talking about. And then there is the water that doesn’t look as good as in the first game. We were also expecting better environmental destruction and interaction. One of the best things in Crysis, was the ability to move the leaves of the trees. Which is absent in Crysis 2. We can’t describe our disappointment when we waved our gun or when we shot through the leaves and didn’t see any kind of reaction. We couldn’t even break the damn trees. This is a step backwards, that really impacts Crysis 2’s image. Guess we were too spoiled by both Crysis 1 and Bad Company 2.

Overall, Crysis 2 looks great and performs amazing. But it’s not the next big graphical juggernaut. It’s better than Crysis 1 but doesn’t push the graphical boundaries as much as we’d hope to. We should also note that the environments are smaller than those of the first part, which indicates that Crytek could have upped the graphical details even further. Make no mistake, it looks great and it is by far one of the best looking games we’ve ever seen. It just isn’t as mind-blowing as the first part was when it was released. And by all means, it doesn’t look as good as Battlefield 3!

Crysis 2 will be released on March 22. Enjoy the following screenshots.

About David Scarpitta

I am a critical guy, and love to review and give my professional opinion on just about anything. Though have a love for tech/gaming and music alongside the cinema. You can catch me consulting and developing the net any day of the week.