MaximumPC 2008 12

COMMENTS^

YOU WRITE, WE RESPOND

102 | MAXIMUMPC | DEC 08 | http://www.maximumpc.com

Crushed by Crysis

In reading your review

of the Digital Storm

Benchmark Crusher

(November 2008), you

note how that monster rig

generated only 20 fps in

your Crysis benchmark

at 2560x1600 resolution.

Even at 1920x1200, a score

of 54 fps on a system run-

ning over 4GHz with three

of Nvidia’s top-end GPUs is

hardly what one could call

acceptable. On my simple

dual-core, single GTX 280

desktop machine, I had to

endure hours of tweaking

to get Crysis to an accept-

able compromise of visuals

and performance. While it’s

good that the game can be

tuned, such changes should

not be necessary. Crysis

reeks of poor coding, and

since Electronic Arts is not

going to release any more

updates, it’s probably time

to put it out to pasture.

—Ed Piotrowski

Editor in Chief Will Smith

Responds: Despite its flaws

as a game, almost a year after

its release I can still say that

Crysis is the most graphically

advanced game I’ve ever

tested. The game’s visuals are

every bit as lush and appealing

as they were a year ago, and

we’re just now starting to test

hardware that can run Crysis

at the highest resolution and

quality settings.

However, I do agree with

you that the game was poorly

coded. Whatever technique the

game uses to “auto-configure”

the graphics settings is inad-

equate. I’ve always been able to

get the game to the same frame

rate and looking a little better

than the auto-config script. I

love that power users have the

opportunity to get their tweak

on with the advanced settings,

but the vast majority of gam-

ers—the ones who’ve never

seen the inside of an Advanced

Settings panel—shouldn’t have

to be bothered.

Connecting the Dots

In your recent article titled

“The New Wave of LCDs”

(October 2008), you missed

one important and often

overlooked specification: dot

pitch. Dot pitch has always

been a very important number

to look at. The rule of thumb

was to make sure the dot pitch

was .28mm or lower. Lately, I

have seen a lot of new moni-

tors with higher than .28mm

dot pitch. Is this because the

dot pitch is now being mea-

sured horizontally instead of

diagonally or perhaps the TV/

monitor manufacturing pro-

cess is being melded together

and the quality just isn’t

there? I am desperately look-

ing for answers, please help!

—Sergio

Deputy Editor Katherine

Stevenson Responds: Dot

pitch, also known as pixel

pitch, describes the distance

between sub pixels of the

same color on an LCD screen.

In theory, the smaller the

space, the sharper the pic-

ture. Among screens of the

same size and resolution

(i.e., the number of pixels on

the screen) there’s virtually

no variation in dot pitch.

That’s not to say you won’t

see varying specs, however;

just as many display specs

are measured and reported

in non-standard ways, so

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