Rainbow Six: Vegas: A Performance Analysis
by Josh Venning on December 25, 2006 6:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Gaming
Setting Expectations
As we mentioned, Rainbow Six: Vegas is one of the first games out that incorporates the Unreal Engine 3, which makes it somewhat special. Another game out which uses the Unreal Engine 3 is Gears of War for the Xbox 360, which we hope to see released for the PC sometime soon. We can hope that Rainbow Six: Vegas performance will reflect future games based on the Unreal Engine 3, because compared to games like The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion when it was first released, the biggest and best GPU available isn't really required to enjoy this game right now. To be fair, it's worth nothing that the performance requirements are about as strenuous as Oblivion, if not slightly higher; the only difference is that the new GeForce 8800 series is now available.
The Unreal Engine 2 made use of DX8, but DX9 elements (things like HDR and shadow effects) were added in more recent games like Splinter Cell: Double Agent. The Unreal Engine 3 is more based on the programmable graphics aspect of DX9, and future titles using UE3 should also support DX10/WGF2. This basically means developers have more flexibility when making a game for this engine. A lot of game developers licensed the UE2, and we are expecting the same with the UE3. At any rate, the next big game expected using the Unreal Engine 3 is in fact Unreal Tournament 2007, which will hopefully be available soon.
We mentioned in the introduction that the game had a few issues we wish would have been addressed before Rainbow Six: Vegas was released. One of them is that as of right now, there doesn't seem to be any support for SLI or Crossfire setups. This is bad news because Vegas is one game that could use the type of flexibility a multi-GPU system could provide. Another issue that could be seen as a drawback is the lack of antialiasing in the game. There is no option for turning on AA and we aren't extremely surprised about this given that the game uses the very new Unreal Engine 3. Hopefully we will see support for this in the future though, as the fastest GPUs should be able to handle HDR as well as FSAA.
As we mentioned, Rainbow Six: Vegas is one of the first games out that incorporates the Unreal Engine 3, which makes it somewhat special. Another game out which uses the Unreal Engine 3 is Gears of War for the Xbox 360, which we hope to see released for the PC sometime soon. We can hope that Rainbow Six: Vegas performance will reflect future games based on the Unreal Engine 3, because compared to games like The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion when it was first released, the biggest and best GPU available isn't really required to enjoy this game right now. To be fair, it's worth nothing that the performance requirements are about as strenuous as Oblivion, if not slightly higher; the only difference is that the new GeForce 8800 series is now available.
The Unreal Engine 2 made use of DX8, but DX9 elements (things like HDR and shadow effects) were added in more recent games like Splinter Cell: Double Agent. The Unreal Engine 3 is more based on the programmable graphics aspect of DX9, and future titles using UE3 should also support DX10/WGF2. This basically means developers have more flexibility when making a game for this engine. A lot of game developers licensed the UE2, and we are expecting the same with the UE3. At any rate, the next big game expected using the Unreal Engine 3 is in fact Unreal Tournament 2007, which will hopefully be available soon.
We mentioned in the introduction that the game had a few issues we wish would have been addressed before Rainbow Six: Vegas was released. One of them is that as of right now, there doesn't seem to be any support for SLI or Crossfire setups. This is bad news because Vegas is one game that could use the type of flexibility a multi-GPU system could provide. Another issue that could be seen as a drawback is the lack of antialiasing in the game. There is no option for turning on AA and we aren't extremely surprised about this given that the game uses the very new Unreal Engine 3. Hopefully we will see support for this in the future though, as the fastest GPUs should be able to handle HDR as well as FSAA.
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100proof - Thursday, December 28, 2006 - link
Matching statistics to the GamerID alone is useless. So why include the GamerID at all? Is other information related to a Ubisoft GamerID account being shared? birthdate? gender?Anandtech will you investigate this?
BronxBartoni - Tuesday, December 26, 2006 - link
I would really have loved to see the differences, if any, between single and multi core setups.poohbear - Tuesday, December 26, 2006 - link
thanks for the review anandtech, many of us are interested in new graphics engines and how they perform w/ current hardware.:)unclebud - Tuesday, December 26, 2006 - link
"I think the point Anandtech was trying to make is that they hope the performance gap can be reduced somewhat with driver/game updates."yeah, it hurts them so bad to admit it... just look at their past reviews in video for the absolute proof.
i bet if they had their way, amd + ati would have never happened. they probably have nightmares every night about it? just my opinion/observation. the site owner needs to come back and review more! i miss his articles! augh!
CrystalBay - Tuesday, December 26, 2006 - link
Go Sierra, never give in. You Rock Forever, Keep on patchin...BikeDude - Monday, December 25, 2006 - link
I don't care about 1600x1200 running full blast with all the settings enabled.Which cards will allow me to run this game at 2560x1600 using reasonable settings? (reasonable=good fps without tangos turning into stick figures)
I have a 7800GTX now... Time to upgrade?
VooDooAddict - Tuesday, December 26, 2006 - link
If you want to run at 2560x1600 then expect to be upgrading to the leading edge frequently. 8800GTX would be a good buy for you if you really want to run at 2560x1600.However, if you run at 1280x800 you'll be at a perfect scaling for that 2560x1600 monitor. (I'm assuming you have the lovely Dell 30") 1280x800 will still look great when it's running smoothly on your 7800GTX.
Spoelie - Monday, December 25, 2006 - link
yesJodiuh - Monday, December 25, 2006 - link
1. Instead of using the "suggested" scene for benching and telling us to expect worse perf, why not take a look at the most stressful scenarios?2. Would you say there might be more perf/better compat for 88's using the newer 97.02's...97.44's?
3. Are these "ports" running better on ATI because they were deved mainly for 360? Thankfully PS3's out w/ NV inside then?
ariafrost - Monday, December 25, 2006 - link
Looks like with my X850XT overclocked I may be able to run RSV at 1440x900... albeit with medium settings and the widescreen hack from WSGF.Graphics performance can only improve as the Unreal Engine 3 is tweaked/optimized. I wouldn't despair quite yet :P