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 now also includes a Shader Model 3.0 path with additional options available with that. For more details of the rendering options and benchmarking using Splinter Cell Chaos Theory see our Benchmarking Guide here.

Seeing as both the boards on test here are fully Shader Model 3.0 capable well use the SM3.0 path, with all the associated options in the game that come with that, bar HDR.

Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory (FPS) 640x480 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024 1600x1200
7800 GTX 125.1 119.5 99.6 74.3 54.9
6800 Ultra 113.8 95.3 72.6 52.1 38.5
7800 GTX SLI 121.6 122.2 121.9 116.5 100.9
6800 Ultra SLI 120.7 121.0 113.9 91.4 68.2
7800 GTX % Faster than 6800 Ultra 640x480 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024 1600x1200
Single 9.9% 25.3% 37.2% 42.6% 42.8%
SLI 0.8% 1.0% 7.0% 27.4% 47.9%
% SLI Increase 640x480 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024 1600x1200
7800 GTX -2.8% 2.3% 22.3% 56.8% 83.6%
6800 Ultra 6.0% 26.9% 56.8% 75.5% 77.2%

This latest title in the Splinter Cell series is proving to be a little more graphics intensive than the other titles looked at so far, as that even under normal rendering we are beginning to see some performance differences between the boards. In this case the 7800 GTX is able to outperform the 6800 Ultra by 43% at maximum in single board mode and 48% in SLI mode, thanks to it more capable shaders and general all-round improvements. Being quite graphics limited means that there are some fairly impressive SLI gains in this instance, with the 7800 GTX providing an 84% gain at high resolution, although the rendering performance is now high that this is again showing CPU limitations with two boards. Note that a single 7800 GTX isn't too far behind the 6800 Ultra's in SLI mode.

Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, 4x FSAA & 8x AF (FPS) 640x480 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024 1600x1200
7800 GTX 119.2 105.5 79.4 56.4 40.8
6800 Ultra 98.6 78.9 58.1 40.6 29.6
7800 GTX SLI 121.3 121.9 118.2 101.5 76.0
6800 Ultra SLI 120.4 116.8 99.2 72.8 51.1
7800 GTX % Faster than 6800 Ultra 640x480 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024 1600x1200
Single 20.9% 33.8% 36.7% 39.0% 37.9%
SLI 0.8% 4.3% 19.2% 39.3% 48.8%
% SLI Increase 640x480 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024 1600x1200
7800 GTX 1.7% 15.5% 48.8% 79.9% 86.2%
6800 Ultra 22.1% 48.1% 70.7% 79.5% 72.5%

With 4x FSAA and 8x AF enabled the title become more graphics limited so the general trends we saw in under normal rendering are the same here, however the overall performance increase the 7800 GTX has over the 6800 Ultra is reduced a little, probably because the test is becoming a little more bandwidth limited with FSAA enabled and the bandwidths between the two boards is one of the smallest differences.

Note: 8xS, control panel enabled, FSAA would not operate in this test. We believe control panel FSAA may have been disabled in the drivers for this title due to the HDR mode not operating with FSAA. The game title has FSAA control built in, which the application can automatically override when HDR is enabled, but the application cannot utilise the 8xS mode.