Intel definitely makes the best processors, I’m still running a core 2 duo E6600 and radeon 6850 and i can run Skyrim/Crysis2/mafia 2 on max settings and 40-60fps.
How does the original Crysis run?
Yeah. Made the mistake of going over to AMD with my latest processor and have had nothing but headaches.
Generally speaking, I’d recommend an Nvidia/Intel GPU/CPU combination of some kind.
I have a 670 and still can’t run it at max settings at a smooth 60 fps. Even in the first few minutes of the game, when they incinerate some guy, the fire effects cut my framerate to like 30. Crysis 2 doesn’t run at a solid 60 fps either on max but the framerate is more steady than the original Crysis.
Also, I wouldn’t get a 3D capable monitor right away either. That’s easily over half of your budget. In my opinion, I would stick with an i5 model, and I have heard that 560ti’s are very good value for the price. At this point, I recommend against ATI cards based on their drivers, I had lots of trouble with mine.
For reference, I’m running an i5-750 at 2.6Ghz stock, 12Gb Patriot and OCZ RAM, and 2 GTX 570’s. I haven’t tried playing Crysis in SLI yet, but the single 570 handles it very well at 1920x1080 max settings, so you should be okay with a 560ti at that low resolution.
As a side note, the 2 570’s run BF3 at 5760x1080 on Ultra fairly easily.