NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX
 |
|
;) SC: Chaos Theory |
We've recently added Ubisoft's great new game, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, to our suite of game benchmarks. Based on a heavily modified version of the Unreal Engine, enhanced with a slew of DX9 shaders, lighting and mapping effects, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory is gorgeous with its very immersive, albeit dark environment. The game engine has a shader model 3.0 code path that allows the GeForce 6 & 7 Series of cards to really shine, but it does not have shader model 2.0 path to fall back upon at the moment. So, when paired with the current generation of ATI's 3D hardware, Chaos Theory uses a shader model 1.1 code path. For these tests we turned off High Dynamic Range rendering to somewhat level the playing field and benchmarked the game at resolutions of 1,280 x 1024 and 1,600 x 1,200, both with and without anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering. |
Before we even comment on the numbers, just look at those graphs. We know only a small percentage of those reading this can afford, or will even want, a pair of $600 video cards in their system, but the performance of a pair of GeForce 7800 GTX cards running in SLI mode is simply incredible. It makes the Radeon X850 XT Platinum Edition seem like an entry-level budget card. Plus, the GeForce 6 & 7 series are able to run this game in SM 3.0 mode, with better visuals.
With that said, the numbers speak for themselves. The single GeForce 7800 GTX configuration was between 16% and 61% faster than any other single video card at either resolution; only a pair of 6800 Ultras running in SLI mode were faster. The GeForce 7800 GTX SLI configuration was in a league of its own, besting the competition by as much as 211%.
