Game Settings

Crysis has four basic preset quality settings: low, medium, high, and very high. The first three settings are available in Windows XP, but you'll need Windows Vista to access the very high quality setting. If you're willing to fiddle with a few files, it's not too difficult to get those settings working in Windows XP. But you probably wouldn't want to play the game with very high quality settings, as it's far too demanding for today's video cards, so it's not a huge lockout.

When it comes to individual settings, pay close attention to the shader, object, and shadow quality settings. The shader quality setting does wonders for Crysis' graphics, but every notch up slashes frame rate performance. You'll want to keep shaders as high as possible to have the game looking its best, but be prepared to lower it to keep frame rates playable. The object quality setting determines the quality and quantity of everything in the game--plant matter, bullet decals, corpses, and rocks. You can dial this setting back to reclaim some performance without a noticeable decrease in image quality, but don't reduce settings too far unless you want to transform the jungles into barren plains. Shadows take their usual toll on performance. Go ahead and set shadows to medium to achieve an acceptable balance between shadows and frame rates. Crysis doesn't really have "low quality shadows," as setting them to low simply disables them.

The Nvidia 169.04 drivers have a minor graphical downgrade that slightly increases performance in the 32-bit version of the game. We renamed the Crysis executables to disable the downgrade in our video card comparisons, but we did not rerun the settings tests with the file edits due to time constraints and the fact that we're not comparing different cards in these settings tests.

Settings Tests

(Longer bars indicate better performance)

Resolution Tests - High Quality

1024x768
48
1280x1024
38
1600x1200
29
1920x1440
21
2048x1536
19

Preset Quality, 1600x1200

Low Quality
96
Medium Quality
49
High Quality
27
Very High Quality
15

Shader Quality, 1600x1200

Low Quality
96
Medium Quality
90
High Quality
63
Very High Quality
54

Object Quality, 1600x1200

Low Quality
96
Medium Quality
72
High Quality
63
Very High Quality
57

Shadow Quality, 1600x1200

Low Quality
96
Medium Quality
86
High Quality
81
Very High Quality
75

System Setup: Intel Core 2 X6800, Intel 975XBX2 2GB Corsair XMS Memory (1GBx2), 160GB Seagate 7200.7 SATA Hard Disk Drive, Windows Vista. Graphics Card: GeForce 8800 GTX, Nvidia ForceWare 169.04.

1186 Comments

  • a_mop265

    Posted Jul 4, 2009 6:14 pm PT

    my system is a amd 5400+ OC'ed to 3.1
    a HD 4830 512mb
    2 gigs of ram
    790GX Jetway mobo
    250 gig hard drive
    windows xp home edition
    and i can run the crysis demo at 1600*1050 perfect it hovers around 30 fps and this is with everything set to "high"
    this system cost me about $550 at the time
    just have to find a good combination of parts and then u can have a good system

  • gbaturin

    Posted Jun 14, 2009 10:49 am PT

    I'm getting decent fps at mostly high settings (only shadows, shaders and volumetric set to medium) on 1680*1050. Running Windows XP SP3, Intel x38 chipset, Core 2 Duo E8500 (3.16Ghz), 2Gb DDR3, WD Caviar Black SATA2 HDD, Geforce 9600GT. Nothing expensive, as you can see. So, you need the right combo of fast mb,hdd,cpu&gpu to run this smoothly. Don't play it on Vista unless you've got an i7 & a GeForce 295 ;-))) p.s. Crysis doesn't care about 4 cores, all you need is 2. And it prefers a combo of Intel+Nvidia.

  • Chris_53

    Posted Apr 30, 2009 1:34 pm PT

    just to add, to get stable fps at high, i honestly thing you need at least a core 2 duo E8000 series CPU, at a GTX260 vid card.

  • Chris_53

    Posted Apr 30, 2009 1:31 pm PT

    I run this with an AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ at 3.1GHz, 2GB RAM and Geforce 9800GTX+ under Windows XP and have it on high and no AA. The game is generally fairly smooth but when combat becomes intence, the FPS does drop, which i imagine is down to the CPU. This is a game which clearly likes Dure 2 Duos or even quads.

  • Arif_Sohaib

    Posted Mar 29, 2009 1:42 pm PT

    evangelion76,
    if you have no use for coreduo please donate it to me.
    I am using P4 1.6 Ghz 1.128 GB RAM and 7600GT and I can still play it at Medium-Low at 1024*768.

    c_wuzzy,
    You can run it on high

  • evangelion76

    Posted Mar 29, 2009 5:22 am PT

    Who uses 8800gts/x's anymore anyways? and amd x2's? u wouldn't enjoy crysis /warhead at less than 30fps's, especially if that's ur max fps? the fight scenes would be at 5fps.. i get avg. of 60fps+ on Ultra high detail@1280x1024 & 80fps+ High Detail@1600x1200 a core2duo 8600, 4 gig ram, raid 0(2x500gb sata2@7200rpm), 768mb NVIDIA 260GTX+ with 850watt Antec PSU. Can't imagine running it on anything less? chucked my 8600gts and coreduo in the rubbish long ago....

  • c_wuzzy

    Posted Mar 25, 2009 3:58 pm PT

    can this run it?:
    intel core 2 quad 2.4ghz
    6gb ram
    vista 64bit
    geforce 9500 gs

  • grootelaar

    Posted Feb 25, 2009 1:49 pm PT

    pixy64@ power pc????? vista drains your pc and how mutch fps minium runs crysis on very high 1280x1024 no AA and that grapics card may not use above 100 watt

  • Pixy64

    Posted Feb 23, 2009 9:11 am PT

    You know what really makes me angry? there is no different between 32-bit and 64-bit computers in all games

  • luziorava

    Posted Feb 22, 2009 2:32 pm PT

    I can play Crysis on Medium with High Quality on Objects at a decent 20 FPS on DirectX 10. Everything at High, 11 FPS. Everything at Very High, 3-4 FPS. Low, 30 FPS.
    I've just switched to DX9 with High Quality on everything and I'm getting the same results. This is my rig:

    500 GB HD 7200 rpm Serial ATA - 3G
    NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GT 1 GB DDR2 550 Mhz (bought it for Christmas, so I'm not going to buy a new one for quite some time)
    2 GB RAM (2x1024) 800Mhz PC2-6400 DDR2
    AMD Athlon Dual-core 64 X2 4050e @ 2.11 Ghz
    Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit Service Pack 1

    I'm looking for a better experience, so, should I get a new CPU? Thinking of a Quad-core i7, saw one at $290. Should I go for it, or Overclock my old one in order to get better results? I will be very thankful for any help.

  • Pixy64

    Posted Feb 22, 2009 5:21 am PT

    Okay i'll tell you, this is my computer, AMD X2 6000+ 3.1Ghz, 2GB DDR2 Ram, Geforce 8800 GTX 768Mb, Vista x64 ultimate, 22" (19.10) wide monitor.
    this is my setting: 1280x800 with high quality with no AA but Vsync on
    but still sometimes like during heavy gun fight i lose lot of frame i mean if you want to enjoy from crysis you must have few powerful CPU and GPU.

  • 360nut

    Posted Feb 20, 2009 9:20 am PT

    i have an amd athalon x2 3.1ghz duel core, evga e-geforce 8500gt and 4gb of ram can i run crysis on high at decent res?

  • gunitman12345

    Posted Jan 11, 2009 5:35 pm PT

    I have a desktop with AMD 5000+ 2.6 Dual core and 9800GTX+. Can I run Crysis? haha

  • metalhead_of_au

    Posted Dec 27, 2008 4:33 pm PT

    I have a laptop with: AMD Turion X2 Ultra Dual-Core Mobile Processor ZM-82 (2.2GHz)
    4GB DDR2 Ram
    ATI Radeon HD 3450 Graphics with 512Mb

    Will I be able to play crysis at all/at decent settings?

  • core_DEVOUR

    Posted Dec 27, 2008 5:53 am PT

    I have a laptop with Intel GMA X500MHD
    2.0ghz core 2 duo
    2gb ram
    can i run crysis at the lowest settings?

  • Draker696

    Posted Nov 30, 2008 9:23 am PT

    44Bubbleboy44:

    "How will i do with this rig, Amd Athlon x2 64 5000+ 2.6ghz
    2 gb ddr2 radeon 4850 oc'ed
    gonna play at 1280x1024 on vista"

    You'll be fine. You can play it at very high settings at that resolution at 30fps.

    Just make sure you use DX9 while playing... some video cards have framerate loss when using DX10.

    Some settings don't change the visual quality all that much, but still they slow down the game abit. the water quality should be placed at medium settings, because there's no difference at all from the medium to very high settings.
    Texture quality? From those screenshots, it changes almost nothing... best to place it at medium/low if you got a lowend/mediocre pc like me with a mediocre GPU. Shadow quality... Medium settings again.
    Preset quality settings... High/medium settings.
    Object quality settings. Low quality for sure. No difference at all and it will most likely reduce framerate if you max it up(even if it just reduces like... 1-4 frames.. it's still worth it considering how this game runs at 30fps in most pc's).
    Shader Quality looks alot better in very high, but medium and high don't look much worse... just... different.

  • cc23574

    Posted Nov 21, 2008 11:54 pm PT

    i am a bit of a newbie when it comes to PC gaming but whatr does 1600x1200and etc. mean?

  • 44Bubbleboy44

    Posted Nov 18, 2008 4:22 pm PT

    How will i do with this rig, Amd Athlon x2 64 5000+ 2.6ghz
    2 gb ddr2 radeon 4850 oc'ed
    gonna play at 1280x1024 on vista

  • patsy-cline

    Posted Nov 13, 2008 10:20 am PT

    gunitman12345, whats the memory in your system? cause its probably a mixture of your memory and processor if the memory is lower than 2GB and gtcheto, the problem there is probably the crossfire configuration is a bit crap, sometimes it can be worse to have two cards and really bad to have quad SLI. Its like that with crossfire and SLI systems, best SLI configuration is the 9600GT's or 9800GT's s, another thing that could be the prob is your Power Supply, how many watts are powering it?

  • gunitman12345

    Posted Nov 9, 2008 8:10 am PT

    I get terrible framerates in dx10 with 9800gt and amd 4000+ 2.1ghz dual core. Is the processor the problem?

  • Fatgoat1994

    Posted Nov 8, 2008 11:13 am PT

    I figured far cry 2 was going to be harder on my pc than crysis. I was wrong.

  • NnethKe

    Posted Oct 26, 2008 8:20 am PT

    It run great on mine: Core 2 Duo 2.4, 2GB RAM, nVidia 8600GT 1GB.Samsung 22" WideScreen.

  • ATFNeOpHyTe

    Posted Oct 8, 2008 10:54 am PT

    i dont know about warhead (dont have it yet), but crysis is one heck of a game (graphic mostly) i run it just fine( everything on high AA disabled this is where my pc will run with a bit of lag now and then), my graphic card is most likely the bottle neck of my pc.
    specs: core 2 quad q6700 @2,67 oc'ed to 2,85
    4 gb ocz reaperX ram.
    nvidea 9600 GT xxx(factory oc'ed) 512 mb.
    i want to buy the gtx 280, but ill be waiting for an year or so, just to have the price dropped, i dont really mind having a bit lower graphics now (they are still very good).
    my monitor is a samsung 2032mw which gives 1600x1050 which is more then enough.

  • DarthLinux

    Posted Oct 7, 2008 2:48 pm PT

    Crysis:Warhead is supposed to be able to cater to lower end pc's and yet also introduce some new graphical features.
    The requirements are quite high but you can always go with medium settings like me.

  • gtcheto

    Posted Oct 2, 2008 9:59 pm PT

    Its said, I have a pretty high end system and still can't run Warhead even in "Gamer" settings.

    Phenom 9850 Quad. X4 2.51 GHZ
    8GB Corsair 6400 Ram
    Crossfire Visontek 3870's (2) all running on Vista 64bit Home Prem.

  • Chronikas

    Posted Oct 1, 2008 10:48 am PT

    On my old rig ...(don't laugh)A 2yr Old Dell XPS with a Pentium D Dual-Core 3.2ghz and (upgraded to) 4gb OCZ pc6200 RAM, with an 8800gtx running XP...this game was AWESOME.
    But alas, I finally built my first custom computer:
    Q9550 2.8ghz with a light OC up to 3.0ghz EVGA 790i Mobo
    4 gb mushkin RAM at 1600mhz (soon to be 8gb)
    GTX 280 (soon to be dual GTX 280's)
    This game is MINDBLOWING. So I would have to say that its all relative, if your pc runs it at a quality that is acceptable to you...having the nicer parts is really just "bonus." Besides, who cares if its the prettiest thing ever? I had way more fun playing Bioshock than I every did playing Crysis...and I'm the biggest graphics whore there is.

  • 54796

    Posted Sep 26, 2008 11:31 am PT

    isolation, that's exactly what I have, and while it won't look like the photos in this feature, it'll be decent, playable and very enjoyable (Medium specs across the board, decent resolution)

  • is0lati0n

    Posted Sep 25, 2008 4:08 am PT

    Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.40GHz
    XFX GeForce 8800GT Alpha Dog XXX Edition
    2 GB RAM

    Yay or Nay?

  • Skyriderlink

    Posted Sep 23, 2008 10:57 pm PT

    Why does everyone want to say I have GTX 280 can I run Crysis at High setting even when they know they run at very high setting.There are many people believe me many people who are running Crysis with 8600GT and happy with that.I have a 3850 and run with mixed settings of medium and very high setting and I get around 25 to 30 FPS and I am very happy with that.I know you all are proud of your systems and you should but please don't make many of us look bad really.

  • snake15545

    Posted Sep 21, 2008 2:08 pm PT

    @sMeAgOl_VaDeR, lol, HELL NO. wow, what a silly question.

  • snake15545

    Posted Sep 21, 2008 2:01 pm PT

    @supergamer911, it wont run at all, i used to have that card,and it literally raped my computer, plus stick with nvidia, runs better with mostly all games. ( check for the nvidia sign on the back of game boxes)

  • SuperGamer911

    Posted Sep 21, 2008 10:32 am PT

    My video card is a ATI Radeon Express 200. Can i run Crysis with this?

  • snake15545

    Posted Sep 13, 2008 9:38 am PT

    @kagemonsta, it will work dude, i promise you that. im running an ati radeon hd 3650, and its at medium high settings. so you will have a fun time playing it man. enjoy

  • Kagemonsta

    Posted Sep 13, 2008 6:33 am PT

    OK:
    AMD Athlon X2 Dual Core Processor 4000+
    1.87 GB RAM GEForce 9800.
    Will It work or rape my comp??

  • Elann2008

    Posted Sep 12, 2008 9:01 am PT

    In some areas, only the foliage and lighting is improved, but surfaces like the ground or rocks look very similar or identical in different quality settings..

  • homersimpsons

    Posted Sep 11, 2008 2:33 pm PT

    can anyone tell me if i bought an Nvidia 9600GT, what settings do you think it would run well on, i have 2gigs and Daul Core 4200+ atm.

    and a ATi 2600XT ICEQ,
    reason why i want to upgrade my GFX

  • TheJamin

    Posted Sep 10, 2008 1:29 pm PT

    "86000 Posted Jul 21, 2008 1:46 pm GMT my specs

    e8400
    850w coolermaster psu
    6400 xms 4bg corsair
    4870 sapphire
    gigabyte x48 ds4 mobo
    vista 64bit, dx10
    i swear i laugh at anyone going at this game with anyhting less than ati 4800 series or nvidia g200 series and rejoicing and showing off that they can just barely play it, i mean yes you can play at medium settings but the experience is just so different when settings are maxed out. i say max out crysis or play something else like call of duty"

    Um no? lol mate Q9550 - swapped it for my e8400
    4GB of Corsair DDR2 pc8500 twinx
    P5K Premium Black Pearl Edition
    Still on my 8800GTX clocked to Ultra speeds.

    And i get the same frame rate as you, if not higher at 1680x1050!

    surely you should know that ATI does not scale well on crysis.

    I love ATI as a company, and at the moment they are destroying Nvidia with the 4800 range, but its down to crysis being badly optimised! crytec are promising a better optimised engine for "crysis warhead" im holding off on my video card upgrade until i actually need to upgrade

  • ninty57

    Posted Sep 7, 2008 9:30 am PT

    I have an intel core 2 quad q6600 @2.4ghz, 2gb corsair xms2 ddr2 800mhz ram, asus p5n e sli mobo, xfx nvidia geforce 8800 gs 384mb, 500gb 7200rpm samsung hard drive, silent knight 600watt psu on windows xp 32-bit and i can run crysis on high with the resolution at 1152x864 and i get on average 37fps.

  • ninty57

    Posted Sep 7, 2008 9:30 am PT

    I have an intel core 2 quad q6600 @2.4ghz, 2gb corsair xms2 ddr2 800mhz ram, asus p5n e sli mobo, xfx nvidia geforce 8800 gs 384mb, 500gb 7200rpm samsung hard drive, silent knight 600watt psu on windows xp 32-bit and i can run crysis on high with the resolution at 1152x864 and i get on average 37fps.

  • MadworlDsurfer

    Posted Sep 3, 2008 3:34 pm PT

    this game was designed to run on the 8800gtx with the best performance and it runs at max settings on my area-51 m15x

  • Robtrex_3000 posted Aug 13, 2008 9:34 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. login to show)

    Robtrex_3000

    Posted Aug 13, 2008 9:34 pm PT (hide)

    Good thing I have a quad-core 2.5g 6 gigs of ram and a 9800 booyah

  • Shalafein

    Posted Aug 13, 2008 12:26 pm PT

    i want Crysis so bad, but sadly my computer would blow up! but thanks to this i might be able to get a computer that can play it!

  • papadopoulos02

    Posted Aug 9, 2008 3:44 am PT

    i am thinking to buy INTEL CORE 2 DUO E8400 3.00 GHZ
    and a 9800GTX 512mb with 2gb ram i hope its worth the money

  • Smecheu

    Posted Aug 6, 2008 2:44 pm PT

    a bit high request's but I think it's worth

  • eldasto

    Posted Jul 29, 2008 8:52 pm PT

    somebody helP!! i got an hdx, settings:..

    Nvidia GTS 8800M
    Core Duo 2.5
    4 GB ram
    HDD at 5400 rpm

    question is.. would I be able to play with high settings??
    thankss in advancee

  • FaceKicker

    Posted Jul 26, 2008 11:25 pm PT

    I've got a dualcore based on ACPI-x86:

    NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT video card
    Windows Vista**Home Premium (6.0, build 600 1)
    BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
    Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 x2 Dual Core Processor 6400+(2 CPUs), ~3.2 GHz
    Memory: 3326MB RAM
    Video card memory: 2419MB
    650W Power Supply

  • PortalDude

    Posted Jul 22, 2008 9:23 am PT

    i have a dell dimension 4700 with an ati radeon card (dont know what model) and a single-core pentium 4 processer and i can run it at mostly high, with as good a framerate as it would be with the lowest settings
    if my 6 year old computer can run it that good, then i dont see why some peoples are running so bad

  • 86000

    Posted Jul 21, 2008 5:46 am PT

    my specs

    e8400
    850w coolermaster psu
    6400 xms 4bg corsair
    4870 sapphire
    gigabyte x48 ds4 mobo
    vista 64bit, dx10

    i play full very high settings at 1280 X 960 res and get 25-31 fps
    i'm gonna overclock ram and cpu when i get the chance so i can fkn own this game

    i swear i laugh at anyone going at this game with anyhting less than ati 4800 series or nvidia g200 series and rejoicing and showing off that they can just barely play it, i mean yes you can play at medium settings but the experience is just so different when settings are maxed out. i say max out crysis or play something else like call of duty

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