Medium Quality Performance
Testing Crysis 3 at 1680x1050 on medium quality saw the GTX 680 top our graph with 79fps, while the GTX 670 trailed closely with 75fps and the HD 7970GHz Edition delivered 70fps – 3fps than the standard 7970.
The dated GTX 580 was able to average 60fps, slightly behind the HD 7950 Boost, while the regular 7950 was surprisingly slow at 55fps, setting it just behind the GTX 660.
The bottom of the list is home to the HD 5870 with only 33fps – playable, but less than ideal in our opinion. Typically, we aim for an average of 60fps but will accept a minimum of 40fps, and you'll need at least a GTX 650 Ti or HD 6950 to achieve that frame rate on these settings.
At 1920x1200, you'll want at least a GTX 560 Ti or HD 7850 for an average of 40fps again, while the GTX 680/670 or HD 7970 will be necessary if you want a shot at breaking the 60fps barrier.
If our 2560x1600 results are anything to go by, Crysis 3 isn't going to be triple-monitor-friendly for a while. The GTX 680 was reduced to an average of 46fps – and again, we're only using the medium quality settings with SMAAx1. Folks with particularly high-resolution displays will definitely want at least one single-GPU flagship, or something dang close.