Intel Core i7 975 3.33GHz Processor Review

For our gaming tests I chose Crysis Warhead and Cryostasis. Both are new games and can have a pretty heavy impact on your system. Cryostasis is especially demanding with its fluid physics, although almost all of that is handled by the PhysX processing on the GPUs. I have included the settings screen shots for each game.

Crysis Warhead

Version and / or Patch Used: Unpatched

Timedemo or Level Used: Call me Ishmael

Developer Homepage: http://www.crytek.com

Product Homepage: http://crysiswarhead.ea.com/

Crysis Warhead updates and refines the gameplay of the original game through a sidestory plot involving Psycho, one of previous protagonist Nomad’s allies. The game is a parallel story that follows Sergeant Michael “Psycho” Sykes, a character from the original Crysis, as he faces his own trials and challenges on the other side of the island during the time period of the first game.

It also showcases a new, enhanced and optimized version of CryEngine 2 using full DX10 extensions and is the first game developed by Crytek’s Budapest studio.

I chose the “Call me Ishmael” level and ran it through to the end of the level.

(Click the above image for the large version)

(Click the above image for the large version)

Cryostasis

Version and / or Patch Used: Unpatched

Timedemo or Level Used: Beginning through to third spirit journey

Developer Homepage: http://www.action-forms.com

Product Homepage: http://www.cryostasis-game.com

Cryostasis takes place in 1981 on a nuclear ice breaker called the North Wind, which has become shipwrecked near the North Pole. The main character, Alexander Nesterov is a Russian meteorologist who must investigate what happened onboard the ship.

This game is the first to make use of Nvidia PhysX real-time water physics as displayed in a tech demo of the game engine.

I ran the game from the beginning until you complete your third spirit journey.

(Click the above image for the large version)

As I mentioned earlier, gaming is no longer CPU bound. As you can see from the frame rates there is almost no difference between the two CPUs, even when the 975 is overclocked. That is not to say that future generations of games might not require more CPU power, just that with today’s games you are not going to get a big boost between the top-end CPUs.

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