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Crysis: Warhead Gameplay Perf and IQ

The follow-up to Crysis has arrived, along with its promise of much-needed improved graphical performance. We'll tell you if it really is better optimized, and just what kind of performance you can get out of the four best video cards you can buy today.

Introduction

Released on November 13 of 2007, Crysis arrived on the PC gaming scene like the proverbial 800 pound gorilla. Its jaw-dropping, state-of-the-art graphics set a new watermark for visual fidelity, but also came with unrealistically steep system requirements. Though generally well-received by critics, Crysis was met with mixed emotions by gamers. Partly due to the extreme system requirements, and partly due to inevitable letdown from the phenomenal amount of unrealistic hype surrounding the game's long development and eventual release. First-person shooter fans quickly cooled to Crysis, essentially relegating the game to the annals of history. It was and still is, however, a great accomplishment in graphical programming and continues to be used the defining tool of GPU performance.

The Game

Crysis: Warhead is the first expansion of the Crysis series. Warhead is a parallel storyline that chronicles another Commando's adventure on the same island. Crysis told the story of Lt. Jake Dunn, more commonly known as “Nomad,” and Crysis: Warhead tells the story of Sgt. Michael Sikes, or “Psycho.” Definitely one of the most dynamic characters in the original game, Psycho is a foul-mouthed former British SAS operative.

Crysis: Warhead is a lot like Crysis, but it is as though Crysis was boiled down into its fundamental elements and distilled to produce Warhead. The signature features of any good action game have been amplified, so to speak. Crytek has ramped up the explosions and intense action sequences and shaved back some of the scenarios which call for a more stealthy approach. Alien Encounters are shorter and less frequent. A sizeable portion of Warhead is spent dealing with the Korean military. But at the end of the day, the Crysis saga is a story about an alien invasion of a tropical island, so the aliens are definitely a big part of the game, and they do make their presence known.

Crysis: Warhead is powered by the same engine that powered Crysis, but allegedly with some optimizations in place to improve performance. The Crytek website has this to say:

Shipping exclusively for the PC, Crysis Warhead is built on a new, enhanced and optimized version of Crytek’s award-winning CryENGINE® 2 technology – bringing the jaw-dropping visuals and graphics Crytek is known for to gamers with a marked improvement in performance.

We already know how Crysis performs, so we will be keeping any eye out for any performance improvements.

The Video Cards

For this evaluation, we will be focusing on the current high end Enthusiast products from both AMD and NVIDIA, as well as the next step down, in the more mainstream Performance class. From NVIDIA, we're going to see how Warhead performs on the GeForce GTX 280 and GeForce GTX 260 (original). And from AMD, we'll be checking out the ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 and Radeon HD 4870. These video cards represent the four highest performing options available today.