Gigabyte Radeon HD 7970 OC WindForce review - DX11: Crysis 2 - High Res Textures

DX11: Crysis 2 - High Res Textures

Crysis 2 then. With the recent DirectX 11 patch and that High Resolution Texture pack (download) we all know one thing, Crysis has become the best looking game to date. DirectX 11 hardware tessellation is the headline 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 test run apply is stringent, harsh and really only suited for high-end DX 11 class graphics cards of 2011 and 2012.

Crysis 2; we apply everything. Image quality settings:

• DirectX 11
• High Resolution Texture Pack
• Ultra Quality settings
• 4x AA
• Level - Times Square (2 minute custom time demo)

We see that the Radeon HD 7970 immediately shows muscle, that really is very impressive. The card makes 2560x1600 actually playable. And just look at 1920x1200, the last gen R6970 scored 36 FPS here, whereas the new R7970 scores 61 FPS on average and the Gigabyte WindForce OC model a cool 68 FPS. That's a huge difference.

And here's a comparative chart, more results will build up over time of course, any card at 19x12 will get a very rough beating from the game. And also let me just state... DX11 / HQ Texture mode and Ultra settings are not a requirement, but as a PC gamer I expect you like something better than console quality right ?

Above, the time demo we use to measure game performance, this is a generic recording not specifically done with the graphics card solution tested in this article. This is the Times Square level.