This is my current setup. I've had this for around two years and I figured it could use a few touch-ups. I will have around $350 for upgrades once release date rolls around. Any comments or suggestions are appreciated. (:

E8400 Dual Core (This is what probably needs an upgrade in my opinion but I was hoping for a second opinion.)
Asus P5Q Pro
2x ATI 4850 512MB of VRAM each (Non Crossfire. I have a dual monitor setup. One for each.)
4GB of DDR2 RAM at 1066 Dual Channel (Though I might need to edit my BIOS since it defaults at 800.)
Main Monitor: 23.6" 100,000:1 Acer 1920x1080
Secondary Monitor: 18" LG 1440x900 (Old)
Decent Cooling System: I average 38* C on a full load. 32* C while idle.
4TB HDD at 7200 RPM(Not important but I figured I would mention it.)
Win7x64 Ultimate

My primary goal is to run everything on max settings smoothly. Feel free to post your own setups. I'm always curious as to what others have under their hoods. (:

This is what i've got,
Xfx 8200 Am2/Am3
AMD 6400 x2 (3.2 ghz)
8gb ddr2 pc800
(1) Geforce 9800 gx2 (xfx version)
1 TB gb seagate

I suggest you upgrade your motherboard to DDR3 and grab some new RAM and a new processor.

Don't be worried about it, if you ran Crysis okay you will run Crysis 2 okay.

E8400 is good and fast CPU and as far as i know, crysis still dobnt use more than 2 cores and e8400 is one of the fastest dual core cpus still in use(not to mention the price value compared to the power it delivers).

Changing ram is even more useless cause there is virtually no difference in DDR2 and DDR3 (no matter the speed) in gaming.
Check reviews and test if you dont believe!

I would rather upgrade GPU cause crysis is gpu bound game.
For $350 you can get ATI5850 which is almost twice as fast.

If you can run Crysis, you can run Crysis 2. CryEngine3 makes things look, better, but the performance is optimized and uses less resources. Which is how they're getting it onto consoles (since many mid-range gaming PCs are better than 360's, but can't even run Crysis).

I'm surprised I can run Crysis so well on my laptop, but I can, so I figure Crysis 2 should be no problem for me.

No edit or delete button :\

I forgot to add my laptop specs, which was what I was planning to post first.

Toshiba Satellite P500
6GB RAM
Core 2 Duo P8700 @ 2.53Ghz
Nvidia Geforce GT 230M, 1GB
320GB HDD, 7200RPM

$1300, 18.4 inch screen. Best price for something like this at the time. So glad I got it and it can run just about any game at max settings except Crysis, which it does on highest for some options and just a bit lower for others.

I dont know why, but i have some problems to run crysis on very high.

asrock k10m780slix3
amd phenom II 940 be @ 3.6ghz
evga gtx-260 core 216
4gb ddr-2 800

19" @ 1440x900

i have never more than 25 fps...

I don't think you need to bother upgrading ur E8400, although you should overclock it a bit (to 3.6ghz). It's dead easy: u just go into the bios and change the FSB from 333 to 400. It shouldn't decrease it's life noticeably, as I've also had mine for a few years at a constant 3.6ghz and it's still fine. Concentrate on the GPU.

Yeah, my e8400 runs on 3,6 ghz too, you just might want to lower the ram/FSB multiplier because some ram modules might not be stable with OC. Adding voltage to your CPU is also important if you want it to be stable, some e8400 require less, some require more, mine for example is completely stable at 1,35V which is above average.
Do it step by step and add voltage slowly until you get it stable. Also find some instructions for the OC process if you are new to it.

well you cant play and fps with a DUAL monitor setup, what youre aiming at would be cut in half by the frames^^
my advice:
get a CF-capable, new mainboard + an i7 or i5 processor thats within your budget, go crossfire with those two cards you already own.
my prediction: 20-30 fps maxed out (!) on your secondary monitor (1440).

unless if at launch day crysis 2 turns out to go easy on cpus (i dont think so but who knows) or scales horribly with crossfire. then of course overclock your cpu, sell the 4850s and get a single 5870.

Best thing is to get a processor and more ram....and that corsair gaming ram ddr2...cuz the ddr3 is way xpnsive and gaming rams are much better...plus if u run short, u can always overclock the gaming ram....

once i find a job i'll start saving for this build.

amd phenom II x6 BE @ 3.2ghz overclocked to 4.0ghz or so
XFX ati radeon HD 5770 1gb of DDR5 X2 with crossfire
6gb of 1333mhz DDR3
Good cooling setup
25" hp 2509m AT 1920x1080p
windows 7 home premium 64bt
800w power supply

to a grand total of $1400 via tiger direct

So the general consensus seems to be that I OC my E8400 to 3.6Ghz and upgrade my 4850.

The 5870 is a tad out of my price range (It is around $400 right now on Newegg) so I'm considering settling for a 5850 with 2GB of VRAM or a 5770 with 1GB of VRAM just to save myself some money. I also have no intention of selling either of my 4850s. If I replace them, I still have use for them in one of my other computers (maybe replace that only 3450 sitting in in the upstairs computer).

Upgrading RAM to DDR3 would require me to upgrade my motherboard (which will probably be i7 compatible) and since I'm doing that, I might as well get an i7 on top of that (since most i7 motherboards are either socket LGA 1156 or 1366 and my current E8400 is LGA 775). And seeing as how the upgrade from DDR2 to DDR3 is not substantial enough, for any visible improvement, I would need to upgrade to either 6GB or 8GB of DDR3 RAM for anything to be noticeable which would cost a grand total of around $800-$1000. And $800 is well over $350. So that is unlikely.

At the moment, my motherboard supports crossfire however crossfire does not support dual monitors. Being able to multitask is really useful when I'm doing other things on my computer, such as CAD (which is what I spend my time doing while waiting for games to come out) so getting rid of one of my monitors is out of the question. I run two video cards separately so I would not run into the issue of splitting one GPU between two monitors and having a single 4850 run my games up to this point, disregarding the fact that most of my games are CPU heavy rather than GPU heavy, has been working well for me.

So now I have a few questions for those of you who are more technologically savvy and I am.

1). Can I run a 4850 on my Secondary Monitor and a 5870/5850/5770 on my Primary monitor? Or do the cards have to be the same? Can I crossfire a 5870/5850/5770 with a 4850?

2). I heard that the E8400 can be OC to 3.6Ghz at stock settings (as in even a novice like me could do it by editing one of two settings). Is that true? Any tips on overclocking that you would be able to give a novice like me?

This is my E8400: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037

3). What gets me the most bang for my buck? The 5870, 5850, or the 5770 with 2GB, 2GB, and 1GB of GDDR5 VRAM respectively?

I think the only really substantially fps changing upgrade would be maybe going for a stronger overclock and a new GPU

Indeed an upgrade would be great, but you still have a decent setup. I'm sure you will be fine.

If you're going for aGPU upgrade which is what would help you out the most with Crysis in particular then a 5850 with 1GB of VRAM (2GB's are not needed at your resolution) would be perfect. OC'ing a 5850 to the level of a 5870 is very easy.

Thinking out of the box though, you'd better look around for other good games as the market nowadays is evolving around QuadCore optimized games that benefit a lot from the presence of four cores on your CPU. And by many games I really mean quite a few major titles starting with GTA IV and it's expansions and moving onto games like Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and quite a few others.

It's your call, though if I were you I'd put those 4850's in Crossfire mode and run the bigger screen on them, since I'm an nVidia user I'm not sure how multiple screens work with the older ATI cards but I'm pretty sure you could get some software to get both your screens run while your 4850's are in Crossfire. Having those in CF and getting a quadcore proccessor would be the smartest upgrade in my opinion.

It's me again, Just upgraded to a (1) GTX 465 from 9800 gx2. Do any of you think it will change the performance and quality of the game with a dx11 gpu ? It still works and is alot faster than before.

I've got the Alienware M15x
Intel Core i7 720QM @1.60Ghz (2.8 Ghz Turbo Mode)
NVIDIA GeForce GT 240M
4Gb 1066Mhz DDR3 RAM
1600x900 Display
250 Gb Hard drive
Windows 7 64-Bit Home Premium Edition

It runs Crysis 1 with decent frame rates on high settings.

The way i understand it, Crysis 2:
New York setting as opposed to Jungle therefore:
Less draw distance due to sky scraqers= Hugely more performance than in Crysis 1
More box like skyscraqers as opposed to trees and vegetation= Less polygons needed for realistic rendering therefore more frames than in C1

Obviously im not on the Crytek development team or anything so I can't say that for sure, but thats what you would presume.

In any event, people complain about Crysis scalability, I never saw any problems with it even when playing on a card as old as a 6600GT (although obviously i didn't get super visuals or anything).
Just bump the shadows, AA, and maybe even some of the post processing and textures down if necessary. It makes a huge difference to frames and if done right, not that substantial a difference to the visuals

Is anyone really working, on truly finding out how this new Crysis 2 will affect pc's running on crysis 1 ?? You guys are talking about specs and theories !!

This is waht iv got, think it will handle it?

i7 920 at 3.2 ghz
evga x58 motherboard
6gb of ram gddr3 1600 mhz
2 GTX 285s
1000 watt psu

Yea i think so. 2xgtx285 are enough... maybe i would overclock your cpu to get the maximum out of your graphic cards...
im interested in how much my cpu will limit my graphic settings...

my sys
Q6600@ 3,6Ghz
HD5870
8gb DDR2--> yea i know its to much but bought 4gb OCZ Gold for 14€
650W BeQuiet p7

[quote]Is anyone really working, on truly finding out how this new Crysis 2 will affect pc's running on crysis 1 ?? You guys are talking about specs and theories !! [/quote]

Crysis 2 is supposed to have lower system requirements than the first game.


[quote]This is waht iv got, think it will handle it?

i7 920 at 3.2 ghz
evga x58 motherboard
6gb of ram gddr3 1600 mhz
2 GTX 285s
1000 watt psu[/quote]

Your rig will handle Crysis 2 just fine. I would expect you be able to run high graphics settings without any problems.

You might be able to OC your DDR2 RAM a bit too; if it works, that's a freebie. My Kingston "Value RAM" DDR2-800 runs nicely at DDR2-915.

Be sure to run an OC testing program when you're done to check for crashes for at least a few hours. memtest86 for example...

oc the ram make a perfomance boost of 0,0000001%