Crysis Warhead, like the original Crysis, is based in a future where an ancient alien spacecraft has been discovered beneath the Earth on an island east of the Philippines [Brought down by Icelandic ash clouds? – Ed]. The single-player campaign has the player assume the role of (Former SAS) Delta Force operator Sergeant Michael Sykes, referred to in-game by his call sign, Psycho. Psycho’s arsenal of futuristic weapons builds on those showcased in Crysis, with the introduction of Mini-SMGs which can be dual-wielded, a six-shot grenade launcher equipped with EMP grenades, and the destructive, short ranged Plasma Accumulator Cannon (PAX). The highly versatile Nanosuit returns.
In Crysis Warhead, the player fights North Korean and extraterrestrial enemies, in many different locations, such as a tropical island jungle, inside an “Ice Sphere”, an underground mining complex, which is followed by a convoy train transporting an unknown alien object held by the North Koreans, and finally, to an airfield. Like Crysis, Warhead uses Microsoft’s Direct3D 10 (DirectX 10) for graphics rendering.
Testing was taken from a custom run of Cargo Level at 1080p in DX10, gamer settings.
Although the 5850 is leading with both average and maximum frame rates we were interested to see that the minimum frame rates on the GTX 465 were 3fps higher – this actually translates to smoother game play on our test level. The HD5830, once again, trails the pack.
The minimum frame rates graph shows us that only a few times did it drop below 30 fps throughout our testing, which is an excellent result – clearly showing the excellent driver development that has gone hand-in-hand with the hardware improvements.