Crysis 2 GPU & CPU Performance Test

Benchmarks: Extreme Performance

Using the extreme quality preset at 1680x1050 shows that Crysis 2 is every bit as demanding as the original. At this relatively low resolution, the GeForce GTX 580 barely cracked the 60fps barrier with an average of 64fps. The Radeon HD 6970 on the other hand averaged 49fps while the dual-GPU Radeon HD 6990 was just a fraction faster averaging 56fps.

The dual-GPU GeForce GTX 590 sailed along without any problems averaging 95fps, proving that SLI is working fine. We found that the single-player portion of the game requires an average of at least 40fps for smooth playable performance. Most of the graphics cards tested will provide satisfactory performance at 1680x1050.

However for perfectly smooth gameplay 50fps+ on average is warranted, which means you will need a very high-end graphics card.

Increasing the resolution to 1920x1200 pushed most cards below an average of 50fps, leaving just the GeForce GTX 580 and GTX 590 with ideal frame rates. The GeForce GTX 560 Ti averaged 40fps while the Radeon HD 6970 was only a fraction faster with 42fps and the GTX 570 jumped up another notch to 44fps.

At the massive resolution of 2560x1600, only the GeForce GTX 590 could deliver playable performance as even the GTX 580 fell below an average of 40fps.

CPU Performance

Crysis 2 fully utilizes four cores and is seemingly unplayable on dual-core processors. The Phenom II X2 560 averaged just 24fps while the Core 2 Duo E8500 was even slower at 23fps. With the aid of HyperThreading, the Core i3 540 managed an average of 56fps.

The quad-core Phenom II X4 970 matched the performance of the Core i7 920 with an average of 61fps. Meanwhile, the new Sandy Bridge processors that were the most impressive as the Core i7 2600K delivered 79fps when paired with the GeForce GTX 590.