Far Cry was one of the most resource hungry games of its time, and even today I bet there are some systems that can't handle all the detail from Crytek's tropical shooter at a smooth frame rate. And by the looks of it, Crysis will be no different. You've probably seen the trailers, but can you guess what kind of monster-machine they were running on? And, most importantly, will your machine handle it?

To answer that last question, Voodoo Extreme posted these highly unofficial Crysis system requirements, taken from a highly-speculative fansite:

Minimum Requirements

CPU: Athlon 64 3000+/Intel 2.8ghz

Graphics: Nvidia 6600/X800GTO (SM 2.0)

RAM: 768Mb/1Gb on Windows Vista

HDD: 6GB

Internet: 256k+

Optical Drive: DVD

Software: DX9.0c with Windows XP

Recommended Requirements

CPU: Dual-core CPU (Athlon X2/Pentium D)

Graphics: Nvidia 7800GTX/ATI X1800XT (SM 3.0) or DX10 equivalent

RAM: 1.5Gb

HDD: 6GB

Internet: 512k+ (128k+ upstream)

Optical Drive: DVD

Software: DX10 with Windows Vista

So how's your math lately? Because here's a little problem for you: add up all the hardware upgrades you would need in order to meet the above minimum / recommended configuration, and see how much that would cost you... If it totals below PlayStation 3's $500/$600 price point, you're a happy man. Otherwise, welcome to the club!

As one commenter on VE3D said, "if you buy a 600$ video card, the problem isn't PC gaming, it's you".

(N.B. Archive text, links removed)