Crysis: DX9 vs. DX10

Crysis, 5 months later. No excuses about immature drivers or API issues. We look at how Crysis DX9 compares to Crysis DX10 and what GPU is best for it. We analyze real gameplay and IQ. Did DX10 deliver on its promises? Should we stick with it?

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System Test Setup

For our test system platform we are using a Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 motherboard with an Intel Core 2 Duo X6800 processor at 2.93 GHz, and 2 GB of XMS2 Dominator CM2X1024-9136C5D at 5-5-5-15 1T. We are using the latest chipset drivers available and the latest BIOS at time of evaluation.

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Video Card Comparison Setup

All four video cards were evaluated at their default frequencies and with the latest drivers available at the time of the evaluation.

Evaluation Setup

Please be aware we test our video cards a bit differently from what is the norm. We concentrate on examining the real-world gameplay that each video card provides. The Highest Playable section shows the best Image Quality delivered at a playable frame rate. We use a high performance system, with a very fast CPU in order to remove CPU bottlenecking.

In our graphs we use some abbreviations to indicate the method of AA or AF being used.

TR MS = Transparency Multisampling Antialiasing – Indicates the use of NVIDIA’s Transparency Multisampling quality setting on GeForce 8 series video cards.

TR SS = Transparency Supersampling Antialiasing – Indicates the use of NVIDIA’s Transparency Supersampling quality setting on GeForce 8 series video cards.