Powercolor HD5770 Vortex 1GB Review

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. 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.

We use a particularly intensive area of gameplay which we call the Cargo run, this is strictly a ‘worst case scenario’ and generally you should experience slightly better performance through the majority of the game.

If ever you wanted to bring a graphics card to its knees, run either Crysis or Metro 2033. The 5770 struggles to keep the frame rates over 30, but at these settings we manage to always remain just over the danger zone of 25fps. A few years ago, a £140 card would never have been able to power Warhead at these settings.

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