Crysis WARHEAD - Custom (enthusiast level) settings for DELL XPS M1730 GF 8700 SLI! Should work for other configs as well!

The settings I made for Crysis worked pretty well for other XPS M1730 users with dual GF8700 on board so here is a small update for Crysis: WARHEAD. Well, not as small as I hoped it would be as those are completely new settings because the previous ones did not work well with Warhead.

So in general - the new settings I made were done especially for Dell XPS M1730 with two 8700s on SLI. The target resolution is 1280x720 (so 720P - as result you can easily play the game on your TV). Thanks to those settings you should get from 25-45 FPS on "Enthusiast" (Very High) but generally the game works around 30-40 FPS depending on the level you play and other factors. Here you can see a video I made showing those settings in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yV4Rj-F4Qg

You can download the settings and view some screenshots below. I also pasted the description which you will find in the "!read_me.txt" file.

PLEASE NOTE: those settings are in version 1.0.1 and still some updates are possible. Also if you want to get even more FPS or turn on antialiasing you can change the object quality from "3" to "2" but it will affect lighting.


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CRYSIS WARHEAD - CUSTOM CONFIG (ENTHUSIAST [VERY HIGH] SETTINGS with ~30-40 FPS!) by Ural, v.1.0.1 + NO OR LESS CRASHES

Config created especially for DELL XPS M1730 with 8700 SLI

With minor changes those settings should give great results on laps with 8800 SLI (all you should need to do is set a higher resolution and higher draw distance)

PLEASE NOTE! I take no responsability for any hardware problems which may occur after applying those settings! You do it on your own responsability!

1. WHAT YOU NEED

- DELL XPS M1730 with dual GeForce 8700GT, 4GB RAM (as in this config we turn off the texture streaming). The CPU doesn't matter (2.4Ghz is just OK)
- Forceware drivers version 177.66 with modded INF (download from here for your system version: http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showforum=94). PLEASE NOTE: If you are uninstalling your previous driver you might want to use Driver Sweeper ( http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=1655). With those Forceware drivers you should ovserve less or even no crashes.
- SLI mode on (obviously)
- RivaTuner 2.11 (previous versions were not tested with new ForceWare drivers)
- Crysis Warhead
- Windows Vista and DirectX 10 with Service Pack 1 or Windows XP with Service Pack 3

2. CHANGE YOUR VIDEO SETTINGS

- Go to NVidia Control Panel
- Go to Display/Change flat panel scaling
- In point 2 choose the option "Use NVIDIA scaling with fixed-aspect ratio
- Apply changes
- Restart your system to make sure those settings are working

3. OVERCLOCK YOUR VIDEO CARD

- Run RivaTuner
- In "Main" tab go to "Driver Settings" - click on the icon next to "Customize" and choose "System Settings".
- Set the Core clock to 750Mhz, Shader clock to 1500Mhz, Memory clock to 975Mhz
- Apply those settings
- In "Startup settings" make sure to check the tab applying the overclocking at Windows startup
- Click OK.

4. Run the game and go to your graphic advanced settings. Set everything to "Enthusiast" (Very High), apply changes and exit the game. In main settings make sure to set your resolution to 1280x720 (the image will be scaled with aspect ratio thanks to changes you made in the NVidia Control Panel). After doing so exit the game. PLEASE NOTE! You have to do it BEFORE copying the files in this folder!

5. If you did what you had to do in the previous point now copy the files in this package to your Crysis game directory (probably x:\Program Fies\Electronic Arts\Crytek\Crysis WARHEAD). Overwrite all existing files when asked (make sure to create a backup of those folders before!). The file system.cfg will not be present in this folder before copying it so don't worry if you don't see this file in this folder.

6. [Windows Vista only!] In the game's folder go to Bin32 folder and create a shortcut to Crysis.exe. Now press the right mouse button on the shortcut, go to Properties and in the "Target" field add at the end "-dx9". In result the target should look like this: ["X:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\Crytek\Crysis WARHEAD\Bin32\Crysis.exe" -dx9], where "X" is the disk on which you installed the game. This will force the game to use some DirectX9 settings which will NOT affect the visuals but will make the game perform a lot better! PLEASE NOTE! Forcing the use of DX9 might sometimes crash the game (usually while loading new levels). If so run the game withoug the "-dx9" command, save the level when it loads and restart the game with the "-dx9" command.

7. Run the game using your shourtcut.

8. Make sure VSync and AA are set to "OFF" (those options should be set to OFF by default thanks to those custom settings but just make sure)

9. IMPORTANT! When you enter advanced settings you might see that some settings are set only to "High". You can change all settings which are set to "High" to "Very High" and the game will still run smoothly! Just make sure that you don't change other settings (marked as "Set by user"). Also change the motion blur setting to "Gamer".

10. [XPS M1730 users and other laptop users with NVidia video cards] Disable PowerMizer. You can find the tutorial here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=261929. This step is rather optional.

11. Start the game and enjoy! You should get an average of 30-40 FPS or more and the game should look awesome! PLEASE NOTE (Sometimes the framerate might drop to ~25FPS but usually the game works between 30-40FPS).



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CHANGES LOG:

1.01:

- Use Forceware 177.66 drivers instead of 177.41 drivers
- Disable PowerMizer tutorial added

 

dude, don't you think the OC on the 8700 gt is a bit too much? since the 8800m gtx can only go up to 625/1500/950 without artifacts

 

Kinda offtopic, but doesn't one 8800GTX give better results than two 8700M GT's?

 

akuma, yep. 96 shader cores are way better than 2 cards with 32 shaders

 

It depends on your cards. Some people go even further with the 8700s. I'm using those OC settings for half a year now and I didn't observe any slightest problem with them. My previous settings for the first Crysis game also required overclocking to those levels and nobody reported any problem. Perhaps you cannot push the 8800s that far.

 

hey do u guys think ill be able to run this game at all on my laptop specs below, i was thinking about buying crysis warhead it but not sure it might be a waste of money

 

someone reply i want to go to the store right now don't know if i should tho hehe

 

There's a huge sticky at the top of the gaming section for your question agbluestick. I think you'd be able to run it, at least at 1024x768 medium/low settings.

 

run it in 1024x640 at medium settings and you will be good to go.

 

The 8700m GT´s starts their clocks at 625 core I think, our 8800m GTX´s starts at 500. I had 8700m GT´s in my XPS M1730 before I sent it back and got the 8800m GTX SLI. I pushed my 8700m GT´s just like Ural does without any problems. Our 8800m GTX´s goes up to 625 MHz core if you overclock it and without any voltage increase in nibitor. Simple as that.

 

I think my laptop will run in, but is it going to be fun and fast gameplay prolly not, i might need to overclock my video card for this game tho... thats just to much hassle err...

 

hi I have a HP HDX9200 laptop with a 2.4 ghz cpu and a 8800M GT
my screen resolution can go to 1680 x 1050

but the problem is in crysis I can only select the maximum resolution of 1280 x 1024 in the menu, so can u fix that in the config? so yes, where can u fix it?

 

I'm afraid it has nothing to do with the config uploaded here. Change your resolution manually in your own game config file which you will find in "My Documents" folder in "My Games/Crysis Warhead". There should be a file game.cfg where you should be able to force the game to use a different resolution.

 

Installing game now... will report Stock settings VS your Config.

 

A small update - here is a video I made showing this config in action:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yV4Rj-F4Qg

 

there is kind of a scroll bar to the right of the resolution drop box. It is very hard to see, but I thought for the longest time that it would not show my native res, when in reality it was this stupid scroll box I needed to pull down.

PS, I can max at 1440x900, a bit choppy sometimes. I would be willing to compare to this as well.

 

gow did you overclock your cpu? did you gain some fps with it?

I have 9000 points on 3dmark 06 (standard settings)

and crysis warhead on reso of 1680 with the modded config here goes very smooth :]

grtz

 

CPU at 2.8, i get about 9600 at 2.8 @ 1440x900.

the GPU is more important but the CPU will def help.

 

this config works pretty well with a t7500/dual 8600m gt/4gb setup, nice work

 

ok but how do you overclock the cpu? I can't do it in bios and I don't find tools for it

I have a core 2 duo T8300 cpu (2.4 ghz) idle at 20c°

 

I've got an M1730, 8700GT, T9500, etc etc... I'm having serious problems with crysis, i cant even run the game smoothly on minimum settings, its ridiculous, so i gave this config a shot

although Ive I'm having trouble finding the Crysis.exe file in the Bin32 folder, so I cant exactly create a shortcut... Can anybody help?

Ps- I just got the game and I'm still using the disc to play it

 

Very late post but is the overclock really far or is it fine? I am also using 8700m GT SLI and looking at Riva Tuner standard is at 255/510/150 MHz for Core Shader and Memory respectively. Is it safe to overclock it that far and should I use some type of cooling?