NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT: Rounding Out The High End
by Derek Wilson & Josh Venning on August 11, 2005 12:15 PM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory Performance
Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory has the capacity to bring almost any card to its knees when you enable the HDR rendering modes. SM2.0 support has been added via the latest patch, allowing ATI cards to also support the HDR rendering modes. We aren't looking at HDR rendering here, as it's still not an apples-to-apples comparison, but ATI owners can at least get improved graphics now.
In our G70 review, we saw that the 7800 GTX was able to outperform the 6800 Ultra in SLI mode in all tested resolutions. Granted, it was only by a small margin in some cases, but it's impressive nonetheless. Even more surprising is that at present, a single 7800 GTX outperforms even the 7800 GT SLI configuration in the three tested resolutions. Enabling HDR rendering would of course change the results quite a bit.
As the numbers show, the 7800 GT is no match for the 6800U SLI in this game. At 1600x1200, the 7800 GT gets 51.7 fps, as opposed to the 6800Us 40.2 (a 28.6% increase). The SLI setup gains another 24 frames over the GT however, for an 89% increase. At 2048x1536, the 6800U gets 22.2 fps, while the 7800 GT gets 36.2 (a 63% increase), and the 6800U SLI gets 41 fps (an 85% increase).
Taking into consideration the much higher gains in performance with the 6800 Ultra in SLI mode, it looks to be a promising alternative to the single 7800 GT if you have the means. While you may need to upgrade your power supply and possibly your motherboard to fit two 6800 Ultras, this may not cost as much as you'd expect, especially considering that prices for these things will likely be falling soon. Depending on how much it costs for a particular setup, the 7800 GTX may be a better option.
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bob661 - Thursday, August 11, 2005 - link
Damn it! That's the only bench (besides UT2004) that I care about. :)
bob661 - Thursday, August 11, 2005 - link
Thanks guys for the updates!!!So - Thursday, August 11, 2005 - link
For those of us who would like to get a better idea of how the 7800GT compares to the 6xxx generation of cards, might you guys consider throwing 6800GT/Ultra (non SLI, preferably) numbers on the benchmarks for comparison?bob661 - Thursday, August 11, 2005 - link
I don't if this is part of the problem, but like the others said, could you guys add in some 6800 series benchmarks so we can compare?JoshVenning - Thursday, August 11, 2005 - link
Hi all,Sorry guys, we're having problems with the site. The article should be up and fixed in about 15 minutes. Thanks for letting us know about the problem
Lonyo - Thursday, August 11, 2005 - link
Oh, I see, it's all pages except BF2. How STUPID.neogodless - Thursday, August 11, 2005 - link
I'm sure everyone contributing comments has1) never made a mistake
2) never had a computer problem
3) enjoys being degraded
Staples - Thursday, August 11, 2005 - link
First off, lots of graphs are not loading.Second, use some common sense. I am upgrading, not downgrading. I want to see what performance I will get over my 6800GT, not how much less I will get than the $600 GTX.
Anton74 - Thursday, August 11, 2005 - link
And now, for some common sense. :]If you're a 6800GT owner, *and* looking to upgrade that still not-so-cheap and capable beast, you're not so much worried about the money as most people are, but you'll be very interested in performance.
So, wouldn't you want to know if you should spend ~$450 for a more modest upgrade (compared to that 6800GT), or ~$550 for the most performance you could get without going SLI?? If the ~$100 difference is a very big deal to you, you wouldn't be looking to upgrade your 6800GT. (And yes, I know these prices fluctuate, and may each be more or less, but the point is still valid.)
Not including its direct sibbling in the benchmarks, the GTX, now that would have been lack of common sense. Honestly.
Staples - Thursday, August 11, 2005 - link
Update:Thanks for adding them. Without them the benches were almost worthless.