Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory Performance

For Splinter Cell, we used the SM3.0 path this time around since all but one of the cards we tested support it. The X850 XT was sent down the SM1.1 path and we list its score at 1600x1200 in our bar graph, but the numbers are not included in the resolutions scaling chart/table. All the SM3.0 features of SC:CT are enabled for this test as well.

For our first test, the 7800 GTX maintains a consistent advantage over the X1800 XT.

Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory Performance

With AA, we see the X1800 XT perform exactly on par with the new 7800 GTX 512, while the X1800 XL performs on par with the 7800 GTX. Again the ATI parts seem to be more resilient when it comes to AA, but the NVIDIA parts remain competitive by sheer brute force.

Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory Performance 4xAA



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  • bob661 - Tuesday, November 15, 2005 - link

    quote:

    All we're REALLY seeing in this review is a GPU isolation test.
    EXACTLY!!!! Which IS the point of these tests! They are intentionally isolating the GPU's because...that's what they're testing! LOL! Anand's been testing the latest and greatest for years now. This is NOT something new here.
  • Brunnis - Monday, November 14, 2005 - link

    Huh? Peak FPS? They're testing average FPS. Do you think they would be stupid enough to measure peak FPS. That would make very little sense...
  • Cygni - Monday, November 14, 2005 - link

    No way. Different sound solutions have different overheads, different overheads have different effects on the cards.

    Sound off. Its the only way to get an acurate comparison between the cards.
  • yacoub - Monday, November 14, 2005 - link

    Holy crap nearly 300watts of power just for the GPU! This could be the first card that really puts a gaming system into the realm of NEEDING a 500watt high-efficiency PSU.
  • jkostans - Monday, November 14, 2005 - link

    Read he article, it's system power. Meaning at the outlet. Actual power drawn from the PSU by the system components assuming ~75% efficiency would be around 210 which isn't all that much if you think about it. A 400w PSU is plenty for this system.
  • bloc - Monday, November 14, 2005 - link

    Getting silly.

    The mainstream people are still looking for the best value for $200. I hope ati doesn't overreact and start releasing a bunch of vid cards to gain the title back. Wait 4-6 months for the next iteration. The mainstream wants 60 fps @ 1024. Offer the best bang for the dollar and we'll rave about it.

    Don't waste money on tons of iterations. Just lower the cost of current generation to compete. Anand will do a FPS vs $$ soon enough, cause that's the real measure of value.

    For $700 buy an xbox 360 or take a Winter vacation.
  • xbdestroya - Monday, November 14, 2005 - link

    Well, my 6800GT can't give me playable in 1280x1024 for CoD2, so that's what we've come to. I would have thought that a card like this wouldn't be needed until sometime next year, but already the level of hardware required by games has takena significant jump since Doom 3.
  • Calin - Monday, November 14, 2005 - link

    Some users prefer to run their 17" or 19" LCD at the native resolution (1280x1024). This means they want good performance at that resolution. As for those that have bigger screens, they want even better performance.
    Even so, there are lots of good games that run ok on old video cards (even budget old video cards). But if someone chooses a certain level of quality (antialising, resolution, HDR, ...) they want, is great to have a site that present different options (cards).
  • PrinceGaz - Monday, November 14, 2005 - link

    Isn't the PS3 supposed to be using a 24-pipe nVidia core running at 550MHz as well? If so, that would almost certainly mean that this card is faster as I bet they are using very similar cores, but the 7800GTX512 has much faster memory than the PS3.

    And of course there's always SLI if you want even more performance...
  • DerekWilson - Monday, November 14, 2005 - link

    heh ... sli ... let's see, $1400 on two video cards or on 3 or 4 next gen consoles ... or on lots of other cool hardware/software/tvs/movies/games ... whatever

    its a fast beast, but its just too pricy :-)

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