Bend over PC - it's spanking time!

An awful lot has been said about what PC is going to be needed to run Crysis. The developers gave their own minimum and recommended specs at the event but I employed a few stealth tactics of my own (until I realised they didn't mind me just asking) to ascertain what machines were being used for the preview sessions. Big ass Dell jobbies with Intel Core 2 Quad processors (couldn't tell what GHz), 2GB system RAM, a single NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX and Windows XP. The latter is especially important because it means that we were looking at the DX9 version only.

The DX10 mode is the preserve of Vista users, as long as they have DX10 hardware of course, and they use "Very High" settings in the game. Use anything, regardless of what PC you have, and apparently it'll be in DX9.

All details set to Low - looks okay, doesn't it?

At High, everything is very pretty but you need a mighty fine PC.

Okay then, deep breath. It wasn't a flawless performance. A bit buggy and quite stuttery at times. Our test sample still has another round of testing and optimising to go before the final code is stamped on a DVD-ROM, but it was notable that certain things really hit the frame rate: moving into new areas or regions that release a lot of enemy NPCs. Crytek were keen to stress that one should run the game with as much memory as possible so these issues might not be so obvious (or even present) on PCs with more than 2GB of system RAM.

Once "settled in", the performance was okay but don't forget that this was on top-end machines, running a code drop not too far from release. It's unlikely (but not impossible) that Crytek can wave a magic wand at this stage to double the frame rates and don't forget that the DX10 mode is a complete unknown, so it's safe to say that if you want to enjoy the best possible visuals, you will need the best possible PC configuration out there. Resolution, I found, made a significant difference to the performance, as did the use of anti-aliasing (in a for the love of God, don't use it kind of way), so there's room to manoeuvre for older PCs, as well as scale for future behemoths.

Heavy vegetation can be shot to pieces.

In theory you could reach that distant mountain but it takes you out of the play area.

The good news is that quad and dual core CPUs are fully supported, as is the 64 bit version of Windows Vista - all of which helps to boost the speed of the engine. Better still is the fact that it actually looks pretty good with all the detail settings on low; certainly the absence of shadows dates the visuals to pre-Far Cry days but the level of detail and scale is almost fully retained. Textures obviously drop in quality, as do things such as water and explosions, but the key aspects of the game (destructive environments, suit usage and weapon upgrading) aren't affected.

Intel and NVIDIA were key partners during the development of Crysis, with the latter contributing a claimed 5000 man-hours or more for code design and optimisation, and driver tweaking. Although the preview sample wasn't bug free in terms of graphics, it was certain a stable affair and we only experienced the odd issue, here and there. How the game will run on other hardware was clearly not covered at the event but given the prestige Crysis already has, you can get your last buck that all vendors will be working on their drivers like mad to ensure the best possible performance and stability.

And the four word synopsis? Spend money or change settings.