I was wondering why am I given the option to choose only between High/ Very High/ Extreme options. My system is choking a bit on the high setting and I'd very much like to adjust the settings to "Medium" or alike.

I'm aware of the console commands to further tweak my graphics but I lack the knowledge of how to do it properly. I tried to input some commands and modify the number bound to each to a different value but it always changed back to the original setting after I tried a game and checked it back.

I'd appreciate any information on either if it is just bugged and not showing all the possible preset adjustements (the Medium- setting I'm looking for) or on the subject of using the console commands the way they are meant to.

High is the equivalent of low...with very high and extreme being medium and high....most systems including extremely outdated ones with 3+ year old graphics cards are able to run the card fine unless you have a huge monitor so a full opened config will not help you....BTW list your system specs so we can see what the bottleneck(s) are.

you are already playing on low

You're not playing on low by any means. Do this. Turn off:

GI 0
Shadows 0
Glow 0
Flares 0 <---------- These aren't the exact commands I can't remember the prefixes.

You could add it directly to the shortcut to the exe, that should solve your problem.

The game will still look fantastic and be runnable. It's still kinda amazing how beautiful this game looks even with these settings off.

I'm running the following:
Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 @2,26 Ghz
Nvidia GeForce 9600GT with 512mb onboard memory and 1,5Gb shared
3GB RAM on a 32-bit Win7 Ultimate
a 7200rpm HDD

And cheers for the tweak info ocstew, I'll have a look at them after I've gotten home.

well you are just skimming by on the min requirements on the gpu so I would guess your performance is as should be expected. according to this preview by Nvidia http://www.geforce.com/#/Optimize/Guides/crysis-2-benchmarks a 8800gt (which should be faster than the 9600gt since most of the 9000 series nvidia cards were rebranded 8000 series) averages about 40-42 fps at 1680*1050 resolution, and this is with a I7 960 at 3.2 which will help framerate out slightly. If it averages 40-42 fps you should expect dips into the mid-high 20's when things get hectic. Maybe you can tweak a bit extra performance out by disabling shadows or what not but it might be time to upgrade the video card.

Update: BTW gamer on that preview is the same as the current High setting