Looking for $300 video card to play Crysis 3 on maximum settings.

[Stealth3si]

Firstly, if I can wait a bit longer this year I can stretch my budget to $350.

 

Secondly, I know Crysis 3 hasn't been officially released yet and AMD drivers haven't been fully optimized for the game. That being said, Google search showed GTX 680 or Radeon 7970 is needed for optimal or high-performance settings. Will either card safely run on Antec NEO 620C with overclocked CPU and RAM? How much OC headroom would I have for the card using my current PSU?

 

Third, which brand and model/variant would you recommend?

 

Fourth, what is the difference between the Sapphire 7970 Dual-X and Vapor-X?

 

 

[wevsspot]

Why not just buy another MSI 7850, set up crossfire, upgrade your power supply and call it done?

 

You're going to spend in the neighborhood of $400 for a HD 7970 or in the neighborhood of $460 for a GTX 680.

 

You can buy another card just like the one you've got for $209, spend less than $150 on a great power supply and you've met all your needs as well as saved yourself between $50 and $100 in the long run.

 

Here's a great power supply that would serve your upgrade well;

 

PC Power & Cooling Silencer MKII 950W Silver

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703028

$119.99 after MIR + $5.99 shipping

[Puck]

Single 7970 will run it on high, but not maximum. Your monitor is 1080p so it will be easier to run then on 1200 or 1440 screens.

 

I get noticeable FPS dips on "very high" during fights with my mild OC'd 7970 @ 1125/1500 and a 3770k @ 4.7ghz, but that is at 2560x1440 res though. It's another system killer just like the first one.

[Stealth3si]

Why not just buy another MSI 7850, set up crossfire, upgrade your power supply and call it done?

After considering that and crunching some numbers, currently, I can get a 7970 for less than $200 after MIR and selling the 7850 and the 2 game coupons.

 

But how much lower the 7970 retail price will go down later this year versus how much the resale price of the game coupon codes will also drop by the same time is what I'm wondering if it's worth waiting for. This is a conundrum.

 

Single 7970 will run it on high, but not maximum. Your monitor is 1080p so it will be easier to run then on 1200 or 1440 screens.

 

I get noticeable FPS dips on "very high" during fights with my mild OC'd 7970 @ 1125/1500 and a 3770k @ 4.7ghz, but that is at 2560x1440 res though. It's another system killer just like the first one.

Could you possibly test this scenario again with and without overclock at @ 1080p res? and report back your FPS results?

Edited February 12, 2013 by Stealth3si

[ir_cow]

the crysis team said unlike crysis 2 , no.3 will bring even a GTX 690 to its knees. I think for $300 you looking an med-high settings. Of course we won't know until it comes out but if they really mean it than its like crysis 1 all over again. in about 3-4 years a $300 can run it on high-ultra.

[Savan]

 

Why not just buy another MSI 7850, set up crossfire, upgrade your power supply and call it done?

After considering that and crunching some numbers, currently, I can get a 7970 for less than $200 after MIR and selling the 7850 and the 2 game coupons.

 

But how much lower the 7970 retail price will go down later this year versus how much the resale price of the game coupon codes will also drop by the same time is what I'm wondering if it's worth waiting for. This is a conundrum.

 

Where are you finding a 7970 for less than $200? Its AMD's current generation flagship. It retails for around $400

[WarWeeny]

 

 

Why not just buy another MSI 7850, set up crossfire, upgrade your power supply and call it done?

After considering that and crunching some numbers, currently, I can get a 7970 for less than $200 after MIR and selling the 7850 and the 2 game coupons.

 

But how much lower the 7970 retail price will go down later this year versus how much the resale price of the game coupon codes will also drop by the same time is what I'm wondering if it's worth waiting for. This is a conundrum.

 

Where are you finding a 7970 for less than $200? Its AMD's current generation flagship. It retails for around $400

 

 

after he sells the 7850 and the 2 game coupons to get around $200~ so that 7970 is 200 i guess?

[Stealth3si]

Now that the game has been officially released, to play the game on HIGH settings, as opposed to VERY HIGH settings, is the 670 better than the 7970, since the Crysis 3 website says a 680 or 7970 is needed for 'optimal' settings?

[ccokeman]

Max settings at 1920 x 1080 above 30FPS is strictly $1000 card territory when running a single GPU, IE GTX 690 or Titan. I'm sure a pair of GTX 670 or GTX 680 would do the same or possibly a pair of GTX 660Ti's.

[Nyt]

 no.3 will bring even a GTX 690 to its knees.

 

I can agree with this. I have a GTX690 and it struggles to run 60FPS smooth in some Crysis 3 scenes, mainly because the SLI scaling in Crysis games have always sucked.

 

 

[WarWeeny]

crysis 3 is a bad optimised game, and it has really big optimisation flaws just to make the consumer happy because they cant max out crysis 3 and it is not for a good reason.

if you compaired low to very high on the first crysis you could see a huge difference in between the settings, if you set it to medium it was a decent looking game every pc gamer could run, but the graphics were not as spectaculair as on very high but this is not the case on crysis 3, not by a long shot..

 

example:

 

 

very high:

 

 

low

 

 

 

if you didnt go compair them side by side you wouldnt even notice it would be on low or very high except the framerate.

crysis 3 is a shame to the pc comunity and crytek should shuffle this game into their arses and make a decent game next time.

 

 

so my advice would be just stick with the cheapest solution because it aint worth it.

[LETTERSTOTHEDEV]

Im with WarWeeny, Crysis is a spit in the eye of the hardcore PC community. Whatever your view may be your better off choosing more hardware based on over all performance rather then one engine or game.