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Crysis demo performance in-depth

By Steven Walton on October 29, 2007
Editor: Julio Franco

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DX9 vs. DX10 Performance

Test System Specs: Hardware
- Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 (2.66GHz) LGA775

- x2 1024MB Corsair XMS PC3-10600 CAS7 Module(s)

- ASUS P5E3 Deluxe (Intel X38)

- OCZ GameXStream (700 watt)

- Seagate 500GB 7200RPM (Serial ATA II)

- Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX (768MB)
- ATI Radeon HD 2900XT (512MB)

Software
- Microsoft Windows XP Pro - 32bit (SP2)
- Microsoft Windows Vista - 64bit
- Nvidia Forceware (169.01)
- ATI Catalyst (7.10)
- Intel System Drivers (8.4.0)

We were told Crysis would perform better in Vista but this apparently excluded DX10 performance as both the 8800 GTX and Radeon HD 2900XT were slower in Vista/DX10 when compared to XP/DX9. While the GeForce 8800 GTX only suffers from a small performance loss the Radeon HD 2900XT is completely killed off in Vista. Therefore I recommend anyone running a Radeon HD 2900XT either stick to XP or run in DX9 mode under Vista (you can do this from the "Games" folder in Vista. Select the Crysis icon, then on the toolbar use the "Play" button, the drop-down menu should show a DX9 option).