Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory & HDR performance
Using Shader Model 3.0 the SAPPHIRE X1800 XL manages to match the XFX GeForce 7800 GT's performance once image quality is raised.
HDR performance
Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory includes an option to use high dynamic range (HDR) lighting, run best through the SM 3.0 path. The SAPPHIRE RADEON X1800 XL has been architected to allow for antialiasing to be used concurrently with HDR lighting, something which is missing from the NVIDIA arsenal. However, patches 1.04/1.05 of SC:CT doesn't implement antialiasing, when paired with HDR, correctly on ATI's newest hardware. Ubisoft, of course, will eventually release a patch that allows just this. Up until then, though, a killer X1800 XL feature remains untapped in this stealth-driven game.
In view of this, the benchmark was run in HDR mode, along with tone mapping, but without adding AA. The results are as tight as the 4x AA 16x AF's, although framerates drop just a touch. It will be interesting to see AA+HDR performance once Ubisoft releases the relevant patch. The optimum resolution here would have to be 1280x1024.
