Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory still utilises the Unreal Engine, like its predecessors, however it has been significantly updated and alongside a Pixel Shader 1.1 path includes a Shader Model 3.0 path with additional options available. A subsequent patch has been added to provide all the features of the SM3.0 path for SM2.0 boards. For more details of the rendering options and benchmarking using Splinter Cell Chaos Theory see our Benchmarking Guide.
In this instance, to achieve like for like rendering, we'll use the SM2.0 path on all boards.
| Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory (FPS) | 640x480 | 800x600 | 1024x768 | 1280x1024 | 1600x1200 |
| X1800 XT | 135.0 | 126.6 | 106.1 | 77.8 | 58.5 |
| X1800 XL | 120.2 | 104.9 | 82.7 | 59.6 | 44.5 |
| X850 XT PE | 113.8 | 98.2 | 77.2 | 56.3 | 42.8 |
| X800 XT | 104.6 | 89.1 | 69.6 | 50.7 | 38.6 |
| X1800 XT % Faster than: | 640x480 | 800x600 | 1024x768 | 1280x1024 | 1600x1200 |
| X1800 XL | 12.3% | 20.6% | 28.4% | 30.5% | 31.3% |
| X850 XT PE | 18.6% | 29.0% | 37.5% | 38.3% | 36.6% |
| X800 XT | 29.0% | 42.1% | 52.5% | 53.5% | 51.5% |
| X1800 XL % Faster than: | 640x480 | 800x600 | 1024x768 | 1280x1024 | 1600x1200 |
| X850 XT PE | 5.6% | 6.9% | 7.1% | 5.9% | 4.0% |
| X800 XT | 14.9% | 17.8% | 18.8% | 17.6% | 15.4% |
The X1800 XT is able to open a reasonable performance gap to the other boards here, with its performance up to 38% faster than the previous generation high end board and attaining an average FPS a little shy of 60 at 1600x1200. The performance difference between the X1800 XL and X800 XT highlights that the XT's performance is not attained through its excessive core clock and memory bandwidths alone, but through architectural efficiencies as well, as the XL is up to 19% faster than the X800 XT; these efficiency gains mean that the X1800 XL is also faster than the X850 XT PE.
| Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, 4x FSAA & 8x AF (FPS) | 640x480 | 800x600 | 1024x768 | 1280x1024 | 1600x1200 |
| X1800 XT | 128.4 | 116.4 | 92.0 | 66.0 | 49.2 |
| X1800 XL | 110.1 | 92.3 | 71.0 | 50.5 | 37.5 |
| X850 XT PE | 99.2 | 83.4 | 64.6 | 46.7 | 35.5 |
| X800 XT | 89.9 | 75.0 | 57.9 | 41.8 | 31.8 |
| X1800 XT % Faster than: | 640x480 | 800x600 | 1024x768 | 1280x1024 | 1600x1200 |
| X1800 XL | 16.6% | 26.2% | 29.6% | 30.6% | 31.4% |
| X850 XT PE | 29.5% | 39.6% | 42.3% | 41.1% | 38.5% |
| X800 XT | 42.9% | 55.2% | 58.8% | 57.7% | 54.7% |
| X1800 XL % Faster than: | 640x480 | 800x600 | 1024x768 | 1280x1024 | 1600x1200 |
| X850 XT PE | 11.0% | 10.6% | 9.8% | 8.1% | 5.4% |
| X800 XT | 22.5% | 23.0% | 22.6% | 20.8% | 17.7% |
In part due to the large bandwidth available to the X1800 XT it is able to further increase its performance gap to the other boards, now exceeding the X850 XT PE's performances by as much as 42%, and the average rendering performance stays above 60 FPS at 1280x1024. The performance differences between the X1800 XL and X800 XT again highlight the differences between the architectures as the X1800 XL outperforms the X800 XT by as much as 23%; the X1800 XL is also able to outperform the X850 XT PE despite its lower bandwidth.
| Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, 6x FSAA & 16x AF (FPS) | 640x480 | 800x600 | 1024x768 | 1280x1024 | 1600x1200 |
| X1800 XT | 125.6 | 110.8 | 86.1 | 60.9 | 45.4 |
| X1800 XL | 103.8 | 86.1 | 65.5 | 46.0 | 34.3 |
| X850 XT PE | 90.9 | 74.9 | 56.9 | 40.0 | 30.5 |
| X800 XT | 82.2 | 67.3 | 50.9 | 35.8 | 27.3 |
| X1800 XT % Faster than: | 640x480 | 800x600 | 1024x768 | 1280x1024 | 1600x1200 |
| X1800 XL | 21.1% | 28.6% | 31.3% | 32.5% | 32.4% |
| X850 XT PE | 38.2% | 47.8% | 51.3% | 52.2% | 49.0% |
| X800 XT | 52.9% | 64.5% | 69.0% | 70.1% | 66.2% |
| X1800 XL % Faster than: | 640x480 | 800x600 | 1024x768 | 1280x1024 | 1600x1200 |
| X850 XT PE | 14.1% | 14.9% | 15.3% | 14.9% | 12.5% |
| X800 XT | 26.3% | 27.9% | 28.7% | 28.4% | 25.5% |
6x FSAA is again telling a familiar story, but again the performance differences between the newer and older generations of products are even greater.
