eVGA GeForce 6800 Ultra Extreme Edition
Halo & Splinter Cell
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 Halo |
For many gamers, the release of Halo marked the end of a long wait, since it was originally released as an Xbox exclusive a few years back. No additional patches or tweaks are needed to benchmark with Halo, as Gearbox has included all of the necessary information in their README file. The Halo benchmark runs through four of the cut-scenes from the game, after which the average frame rate is recorded. We patched the game using the latest v1.04 patch and ran this benchmark twice, once at 1024x768 and then again at 1600x1200. Anti-aliasing doesn't work properly with Halo, so all of the test below were run with anti-aliasing disabled. |
The eVGA GeForce 6800 Ultra Extreme Edition swept the competition in the Halo benchmark. At 1024x768, the GeForces were evenly matched, but the X800 XT fell behind. Cranking the resolution up to 1600x1200 allowed the X800 XT to pull in front of the GeForce 6800 GT by a couple of frames per second, the 6800 Ultras, however, still dominated.
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 Splinter Cell |
Splinter Cell's version 1.2 patch includes three pre-recorded demos and incorporates a previously unavailable benchmarking tool. The demos included with the patch are somewhat limited by CPU performance, however, so we opted for the custom Oil Rig demo created by the folks at Beyond 3D to test with this game. Beyond 3D's demo removes two CPU intensive routines while increasing dependence on Pixel Shader performance. Shaders are used to render realistic looking ocean water surrounding an Oil Rig in the demo, as well as simulating a night vision effect for a brief period. Take note that anti-aliasing doesn't work with Splinter Cell in its current state. Due to this fact, we do not have any AA scores listed in the graphs below. |
A few short months ago, ATi hardware owned the Splinter Cell benchmark. But with the NV40 and Forceware v6x.xx drivers NVIDIA has pull ahead for now. At 1024x768, none of the cards we tested broke a sweat, all finishing within 3 frames per second of each other. At 1600x1200 though, the pecking order changed a bit, with the eVGA card taking first, followed closely behind by the Radeon X800 XT Platinum Edition.
