Crysis 2 DX 11 - HQ Textures update graphics card performance

When Crysis 2 launched earlier this year I have to admit, I was a little ticked off that the game was only a DX9 title. Hence I did not even bother to purchase it. However a week and a half ago Crytek released a new 1.9 patch, that and bringing DirectX 11 towards the game. And yet another patch was released, a high-resolution texture package (you can download them all here).

I still hate the fact that we had to wait nearly five months on the two, but for a graphics card freak (read whore) like yours truly the dynamic definitely changed.

So for the past few months the developers of the game have been working on the game like little lemmings (oooh-nooo) to create the most extensive and advanced DirectX 11 features seen in any game to date.

The end result is an upgrade, a free visual upgrade add-on that introduces DirectX 11 tessellation, a plethora of graphical enhancements for both DirectX 9 and 11, and a high-resolution texture pack only suitable for use on graphics cards with 1GB of video RAM.

DirectX 11 hardware tessellation is a massive feature, but the Ultra Upgrade also introduces soft shadows with variable penumbra, improved water rendering, and particle motion blur and shadowing. Having been originally omitted from CryEngine 3, Parallax Occlusion Mapping has been reintroduced, as has full-resolution High Dynamic Range motion blur, making the game’s use of camera panning more detailed and defined. To improve performance further hardware-based occlusion culling has been implemented, resulting in performance improvements from objects and scenery out of view not being rendered.

The end-result even baffled a graphics monger like yours truly. Today well be looking at game performance with a graphics card or sixteen. Next to that we'll also have a peek at CPU scaling a little to see on what platform the game runs best, but well that shouldn't be a surprise.

Nuff said, we'll start off with some comparisations, have a peek at the time demo and then do some numbers. Head onwards to the next page please.