Introducing the Radeon X1650 XT: A New Mainstream GPU from ATI
by Josh Venning on October 30, 2006 6:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory Performance
Our last performance test we'll be looking at is with Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. This benchmark has been around for a while, and we've used it time and again to not only test frames per second, but also power consumption and heat levels for many GPUs. The game is getting to be a little old for our purposes; we prefer using more current and/or more widely-played games for our performance tests, but it is still useful to us because of its SM3.0 features. With the imminent release of the next Splinter Cell game (Splinter Cell: Double Agent), we're interested in seeing how the newest installment of this game looks graphically, and how much it will tax our graphics cards in tests to come.
For this test we set all of the quality settings to the highest level possible and turned on all the SM3.0 features. We also set anisotropic filtering to 8x for all cards.
Our graphs show the X1650 XT and the 7600 GT being very close in performance, in most resolutions having less than 1 FPS difference. In this test, the 7600 GT still does a tiny bit better than the X1650 XT, but the results are too close to matter for the most part. Because the gameplay of Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory relies on stealth, it doesn't require a very high frame rate to be enjoyable. This game would be playable at 1920x1440 on almost all these cards, with the exception of the X1600 XT and 6600 GT.
Our last performance test we'll be looking at is with Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. This benchmark has been around for a while, and we've used it time and again to not only test frames per second, but also power consumption and heat levels for many GPUs. The game is getting to be a little old for our purposes; we prefer using more current and/or more widely-played games for our performance tests, but it is still useful to us because of its SM3.0 features. With the imminent release of the next Splinter Cell game (Splinter Cell: Double Agent), we're interested in seeing how the newest installment of this game looks graphically, and how much it will tax our graphics cards in tests to come.
For this test we set all of the quality settings to the highest level possible and turned on all the SM3.0 features. We also set anisotropic filtering to 8x for all cards.
Our graphs show the X1650 XT and the 7600 GT being very close in performance, in most resolutions having less than 1 FPS difference. In this test, the 7600 GT still does a tiny bit better than the X1650 XT, but the results are too close to matter for the most part. Because the gameplay of Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory relies on stealth, it doesn't require a very high frame rate to be enjoyable. This game would be playable at 1920x1440 on almost all these cards, with the exception of the X1600 XT and 6600 GT.
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LuxFestinus - Monday, October 30, 2006 - link
One nice thing about the X1650 XT is that is doesn't require an external power connection. The second "is" should be "it" please. Thank you.Josh Venning - Monday, October 30, 2006 - link
It's been fixed. Thankstrabpukcip - Monday, October 30, 2006 - link
I think they meant the 7600GT doesn't require an external power connector.
I sure remember hooking up the power connector for my little brother's 7900GS less than five metres from me, being derived from a crippled 7900GT and all.
And as for you you American dotted underline spellchecker. I spell it metres NOT meters where I come from ;). (It even underlined "spellchecker", the irony).
bldckstark - Monday, October 30, 2006 - link
What colour was the underline?DerekWilson - Monday, October 30, 2006 - link
lolJarredWalton - Monday, October 30, 2006 - link
Back to the original comment, this has been corrected. Unless Josh knows something I don't, all of the 7900 GS cards I can find require a PCIe power connector. 7600 GT does not, however. Odd, considering power draws are about the same.BigLan - Monday, October 30, 2006 - link
What's the avivo performance of the x1650xt? Can it handle acceleration of 1080i/p stuff, or is it limited to 720p like it's predecessor? If it can only do 720p it's taking a huge hit against the 7600gt which has full purevideo compatibility (and is the current darling of the htpc crowd.)Also, I haven't heard anything about gpu accelerated transcoding in a while. Any chance of getting an anandtech article about it using non-beta versions?
blckgrffn - Monday, October 30, 2006 - link
An incomplete specifications table, assertions like "it has twice the pixel pipelines, 12 to 24 which will fix the performance issues" when really the x16xx family was plagued by a fill rate comparable to a 9600XT.Don't take this personal Josh - but Anandtech is supposed to have the definitive review, not simply an adequate one.
Nat
DerekWilson - Monday, October 30, 2006 - link
We had trouble tracking down the # of vertex and color/z pipes -- we didn't want to comment on any fill rate differences until we could confirm our suspicions -- raster pipes have doubled, and this definitely helps at higher resolutions and with AA or stencil shadows, etc...But doubling the pixel pipes does allow them to get a big boost in performance without upping the clock speed in more modern games (like oblivion) where fill rate wasnt as large an issue.
Sorry for the gap in the article -- it has been updated and a paragraph has been added after our charts to explain the impact of raster pipes. In the future, we'll be sure to get ahold of the data we need in a more timely fashion.
Derek Wilson
blckgrffn - Tuesday, October 31, 2006 - link
Thanks!Anandtech is my homepage, and will continue to be for some time. Really, I think we all just want to see this site be the best that it can be.
Nat