also read that dual cores dominate quad cores in running Crysis because of how the game system is designed - heard that theres a patch to make quad cores performance much better in game.
Anyone able to back that up?
Cerussatus
this is a review from the crysis developers, Crytek on release of crysis:
What kind of performance difference will we see in Crysis between Single/Dual/Quad/ core processors?
You will see a large performance increase on multi-core processors, especially regarding the worst case frame rates during intense action sequences allowing the player to experience a more stable frame rate through out the whole game. A quad core system should provide the best gaming platform for Crysis.
What technologies, effects, enhancements etc. will we see in Crysis with the use of the multiple core processors?
The most significant enhancement is the increased frame rate but it doesn’t stop there. Multi-core systems benefit from being able to generate much more complex visual particle effects using the additional cores to offload the work from the main game code.
Will Crysis be more dependent on the GPU or the CPU?
That will depend on the settings you are running the game at. Crysis is designed to make the most of both the CPU and GPU but with enough scalability to ensure a good game play experience on older hardware as well.
Will Crysis support some kind of thread branching so it can theoretically support an unlimited amount of cores?
The engine doesn’t currently support the kind of thread batching which would scale to an unlimited amount of cores. For a small number of cores it’s proved more suitable to use a parallelization technique where individual tasks, such as physics, sound, particle calculations etc. are performed in parallel.
How is gaming processing distributed among the cores? ex: AI, sound, effects, physics
This varies based on the type of hardware you are running on. In theory the physics, sound, many of the particle systems and the game logic can all run on separate cores. In additional much of the time spent in the graphics driver can be offloaded to another core as Crysis has a very highly optimised Direct3D graphics engine.
Will the x64 version have a significant performance improvement over the x86 one?
With all others things being equal regarding hardware and driver performance then the 64bit version of Crysis will be the best performing version. The Sandbox level editor processes a large amount of data and is best run on a 64bit system.
Do you have any recommendations on other complimentary hardware to ensure maximum performance and avoid potential bottlenecks?
N/A
What is being done to accommodate those on older slow processors?
While Crysis has been optimised to allow for best possible gaming experience on high end multi core systems the game still offers an excellent experience on older hardware. Several features can be scaled back to ensure Crysis can be run well on older systems without affecting the game play experience.
How early into the games development have you been working with Crytek?
We have been working with Crytek for over 2 years to keep them updated with the latest progress in hardware development.
What benefits will gamers see as a result of your direct involvement with Crytek?
See above: frame rate stability, effects etc…
