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Head-to-Head Performance
With
Splinter Cell |
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Stealth Pixel Shading |
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Splinter
Cell
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Splinter Cell's version 1.2 patch includes three
pre-recorded demos in addition to a benchmarking
feature. The demos included with the patch are
somewhat limited by CPU performance, however, so we used
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 the realistic looking ocean water
surrounding the Oil Rig in the demo, as well as
simulating a night vision effect.
As we've mentioned in the past,
anti-aliasing doesn't work with Splinter cell (at least
with the current version). Due to this fact, we do
not have any AA scores listed in the graphs below. |
With Splinter
Cell, comparing the results between the three cards was a
bit lackluster, with the GV-R96X128D holding the slightest
of leads over the others. The 5700 Ultra didn't fair as well
this time around, slipping to both ATI models in each test.
To be honest, we're splitting hairs here, but when it comes
down to brass knuckles, the Gigabyte 9600XT model took top
spot in each test.
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Performances Comparisons
With Final Fantasy XI Benchmark 2 v1.01 |
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Chocobos on the PC |
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Final
Fantasy XI
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The Final Fantasy franchise is well known to console
gamers, but Squaresoft has since made the jump to the PC
with a MMORPG version of this classic. The Final Fantasy
XI benchmark runs through a few scenes from the game and
displays a final score every time a full cycle of the
demo is completed. Although the demo is meant the
check an entire system's readiness to play the game, the
number of frames rendered scales well with different
video cards installed. Lower scores indicate some
frames were dropped to complete the demo in the allotted
time. The scores below were taken with the demo
set to "High Resolution" (1024x768), with anti-aliasing
disabled. |
This is one of those
benchmarks that is a little disturbing. The demo is
riddled with these little happy creatures dancing and
clapping and wiggling. By the time it completes I was
left wondering if someone had slipped something into my
coffee. Nonetheless, it is a good tool for assessing
DX9 performance. In this test the 5700 Ultra showed
its medal, topping the 9600XT by 276 points and 560 points
over the AIW.
Next Up: Gun Metal & Comanche 4
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