Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
We've moved out the older version of Splinter Cell in favour of the more recently released title in the series, 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.
With GammaChrome S18 being Shader Model 2.0 capable the maximum rendering path that can be utilised in this case is the 1.1 path, however while we'll include the PS1.1 performance for the GeForce's for comparison, we'll also include the SM3.0 performances from them as they are able to render this path.
| Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory (FPS) | 640x480 | 800x600 | 1024x768 | 1280x1024 | 1600x1200 |
| S18 Nitro | 29.1 | 22.9 | 16.4 | 10.9 | 7.9 |
| X600 PRO | 35.6 | 28.5 | 21.2 | 15.1 | 11.0 |
| 6600 (PS1.1) | 41.7 | 33.3 | 24.6 | 18.0 | 12.9 |
| 6200 (PS1.1) | 34.4 | 26.2 | 18.5 | 12.8 | 9.1 |
| 6600 (PS3.0) | 43.6 | 35.0 | 26.0 | 19.1 | 13.7 |
| 6200 (PS3.0) | 35.6 | 27.2 | 19.3 | 13.4 | 9.5 |
| S18 % Faster Than: | 640x480 | 800x600 | 1024x768 | 1280x1024 | 1600x1200 |
| X600 PRO | -18.4% | -19.7% | -22.7% | -27.8% | -28.2% |
| 6600 (PS1.1) | -30.3% | -31.3% | -33.4% | -39.7% | -39.1% |
| 6200 (PS1.1) | -15.4% | -12.5% | -11.6% | -15.1% | -13.6% |
| 6600 (PS3.0) | -33.3% | -34.6% | -36.9% | -43.0% | -42.6% |
| 6200 (PS3.0) | -18.4% | -15.8% | -15.1% | -18.6% | -17.3% |
With this title being fairly shader driven, the performance differences between the S18 and other boards somewhat mirror what we saw with the Pixel Shader tests and the S18 rendering slower than all the other boards - the SM3.0 path, with its reduced number of passes, just allows the GeForce 6's to open up the performance gap a little more.
| Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, 2x FSAA & 4x AF (FPS) | 640x480 | 800x600 | 1024x768 | 1280x1024 | 1600x1200 |
| S18 Nitro | 19.8 | 14.6 | 10.0 | 6.4 | 4.6 |
| X600 PRO | 31.0 | 24.3 | 18.2 | 13.0 | 8.5 |
| 6600 (PS1.1) | 35.8 | 28.1 | 20.4 | 14.4 | 10.0 |
| 6200 (PS1.1) | 28.9 | 21.8 | 15.2 | 10.3 | 7.1 |
| 6600 (PS3.0) | 38.3 | 30.3 | 22.2 | 16.0 | 11.3 |
| 6200 (PS3.0) | 30.5 | 23.0 | 16.1 | 11.0 | 7.6 |
| S18 % Faster Than: | 640x480 | 800x600 | 1024x768 | 1280x1024 | 1600x1200 |
| X600 PRO | -36.2% | -39.8% | -45.4% | -50.7% | -45.9% |
| 6600 (PS1.1) | -44.7% | -48.1% | -51.3% | -55.6% | -53.7% |
| 6200 (PS1.1) | -31.6% | -33.0% | -34.6% | -37.8% | -35.4% |
| 6600 (PS3.0) | -48.4% | -51.8% | -55.2% | -59.9% | -59.2% |
| 6200 (PS3.0) | -35.1% | -36.5% | -38.3% | -41.6% | -39.6% |
Again, with 2x FSAA and 4x AF enabled in this test the S18 has a fairly large performance deficit to all the other boards here.
| S18 Nitro (FPS) | 640x480 | 800x600 | 1024x768 | 1280x1024 | 1600x1200 |
| Normal | 29.1 | 22.9 | 16.4 | 10.9 | 7.9 |
| 4x AF | 28.3 | 22.3 | 16.1 | 10.7 | 7.8 |
| 2x FSAA | 20.5 | 15.0 | 10.2 | 6.5 | 4.7 |
| 2x FSAA & 4x AF | 19.8 | 14.6 | 10.0 | 6.4 | 4.6 |
| % Diff from Normal | 640x480 | 800x600 | 1024x768 | 1280x1024 | 1600x1200 |
| 4x AF | -2.5% | -2.6% | -2.0% | -1.7% | -1.5% |
| 2x FSAA | -29.6% | -34.5% | -37.8% | -40.0% | -40.5% |
| 2x FSAA & 4x AF | -31.9% | -36.2% | -39.3% | -41.1% | -41.4% |
Under this Splinter Cell test we can see that enabling 4x AF on the S18 board hardly accounts for much of a performance impact at all, but FSAA accounts for about a 40% performance reduction. With these high detail settings the frame rates are fairly low even at low resolutions.
