HIS Excalibur X800 Pro - VIVO Edition with IceQ II
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 Final Fantasy XI |
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 multiple 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 when different video cards are used. 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 its "High Resolution" option (1024x768), with anti-aliasing disabled. |
Each of the next generation cards form NVIDIA and ATI enjoyed a big boost in performance with Final Fantasy XI. The GeForce 6800 scored over 500 points compared to the FX5900XT. The HIS Radeon X800 Pro managed to double that lead, topping the FX5900XT by over 1000 points.
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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. Also note that anti-aliasing doesn't work with Splinter Cell. Due to this fact, we do not have any AA scores listed in the graphs below. |
With Splinter Cell, the X800 Pro reigned as the top contender again. This time we saw a fair lead over the stock 6800 while trouncing the GeForce FX5900XT altogether. On average, the X800 Pro managed to lead a stock GeForce 6800 by 14% at 1024 x 768 and 30% at 1600 x 1200.
