After tweaking to death I decided the optimal image quality vs performance setting for me is;

Resolution: 1024x768
Settings: All Very High/No shadows
Framerate: 30-40

My OS is Windows Vista Ultimate x64. Shadows and 1280x1024 resolution make a big difference, but the extra 15fps with them turned off finds that 30fps sweet spot to enjoy the game. Alternatively I could go with the recommended All high/1280x1024 but thats like changing from "Real" to "Videogame" because Very high really is that great!

I've suffered from extremely frustrating stuttering here and there. The stuttering means 5 seconds of 30-40fps followed by 1 second of waiting and so on. It appears to be completely random whether or not it occurs bar a few variables;

• When an explosion happens (grenade, barrels, whatever)
• Turning 90degrees+ very quickly (loading new scenery...)
• Firing a weapon (not melee attacks though)
• Playing a new level (sometimes I restart my computer and the level will work fine afterward, like the cache for the previous level has been purged and the memory is available again...)

I did notice the game started working extremely smooth after I stopped playing it with fraps running (not recording, just displaying Frames per second) I have also defragmented/closed Windows Sidebar MSN messenger to see if it prevents stuttering but its still a random occurance.

I'm looking forward to newer drivers/patch support from Crytek to see how things are after that

TOO MUCH DETAIL? READ FROM HERE

And I've made this thread to ask these key questions:

1. What are your Videocard/Settings/FPS - do you get stuttering issues? (I'd like to see what ATI & Nvidia owners have to say)
2. Have you overclocked any components and what impacts does this have on the game? (Positive/negative)
3. What O/S do you use? Are the stutters a Vista exclusive?
4. Does 4gb RAM prevent the stutters? (I tried a friends PC5300 2gb kit with my pc6400 2gb kit and while loading times improved noticably, there wasn't any ingame improvements)
   
   and just for fun...
   
   
5. BEEP!BEEP!
6. thats all folks!

Firstly, all benchmarks show that high end video cards get 10-15 fewer frame rates on vista compared to xp. Mostly because the os is a resouce hog.

Vista also will sometimes pull 1.5Gs if ram for the os depending on what you're doing and you only have 2. If I were you I'd upgrade if you plan on keeping Vista.

This is my advise especially since your board is really similar to my own.
I've used xp and vista, huge difference on your system, the stress that is.

I tried 4gb RAM and still had a whole load of stuttering but like I said it was a different brand, and speed (OCZ 2gb PC5300) from my 2gb Patriot PC6400 so I have my fingers crossed that was the problem. I plan to upgrade RAM sometime and know its cheap but I think I should wait for drivers/patches before upgrading.

As for XP vs Vista I know all about it Seeing Crysis is the only thing causing pain right now AND there are patches/fixes/drivers pending anyway I could see how things are after that. I haven't tried XP on this machine though so maybe I could try it on another Hard drive oneday to see just how much I'm missing thanks to Vista eating resources!

crysis needs a really powerful pc to run :/

I think you'll find this thread an interesting read.

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=534855

i lol'd at some guy that said "Loading screen takes half hour to do LOL. "

: P

so many horrible story in that thread :<
Cyrsis shouldn't run on all low setting imo, it would look like Farcry 1 all over again with horrible plants and vegetation :S

I totally didnt think about the fact that crysis is the most video dedicated game up to date. I'm going to have to try to play it with my setup. Although I dont think I will have no lag.

good find Route44. Crazy results, I'm with Condor and believe the game shouldn't be played on low settings at all... it takes way too much sparkle! Theres other games that are prettier and work a lot faster than Crysis/Low config

Seriously!? With 8800 you can use 1680x1050 and very high with no AA.

I've just tried the DX10 hack for DX9 and I'm getting an extra 10fps, but I can see the loss in image quality, wheres the beautiful object motion blur gone!? Wasn't DX10 supposed to achieve more amazing effects + higher poly counts but perform better than DX9 does? Turning on DX10 in games seems to be the on off switch for playable/sluggish, take Bioshock + Gears of War as an example - DX9 works a lot better at the moment. I hope 7.11 drivers make a difference

Another interesting read and it contains good information.

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=535261

Cool. I don't recommend ATI folks to take benchmarks seriously at the moment though. If it runs at 40fps but stutters its a pain in the neck to play, but you'll get average ~40fps result

I've downloaded Crysis Hotfix but stutters are still there lively as ever. I look forward to support patches and ATI 7.11 drivers

I'm steadily working my way through the game, but I'll be starting over if the stuttering is improved because I know I'm missing out on the experience at the moment! Better performance would be welcomed too because I'm using no shadows and 1024x768 at the moment, but the stuttering MUST be top priority

The Crysis HotFix drivers work GREAT here, but alas only in DX9 mode.

DX10 remains mostly uneffected, but I see huge improvements in performance running the game in DX9 mode. Just add a -DX9 to the shortcut and run the Hotfix drivers for great gains.

I'm hoping this is indicative of gains we may see in the DX10 drivers soon. It only makes sense though as there are actually very few folks on Vista/DX10 if Valve's latest survey can be used to measure this.

I tried DX9/10 and didnt see much difference, but I was using the "Very high" hack in DX9. That shouldn't be a problem though because its still using DX9 where you mentioned the performance gains are. Last night I tried DX9 without any modded configuration and there was nothing significant/suprising to be seen, apart from 2xAA didnt seem to have much of a performance hit anymore (not that I recommend playing this game with AA yet). But, the low framerates arent so much of a priority to me. Stuttering is whats making this game look like rubbish. I'm ok with 1024x768 and no shadows in DX10 because that way I get 20-40FPS with everything else at highest settings, but the stuttering renders 40fps useless. Crysis game I'm playing really is the Roadrunner, and runs fast as hell, but porky pig is the damn voice actor