AquaMark3 & Splinter Cell
AquaMark3- Author: Massive
- DirectX Class: 9.0
- Pixel and Vertex Shaders: Yes (mixed mode, PS1.4 and PS2.0)
- FSAA and AF set via application
Can you feel the pain?. We certainly could. Having a full DX9 feature set is both a boon and disadvantage. If a benchmark or game makes full use of the API's specification and introduces complicated shader effects, a card needs to have enough raw power to churn out acceptable framerates. ATI's Radeon 9600 XT and NVIDIA's FX 5900 XT do, obviously, but they also cost twice as much
Splinter Cell
- Author: UbiSoft
- DirectX Class 8.1
- Pixel and Vertex Shaders: Yes (PS1.1)
- No FSAA. AF set via control panel
- Beyond3D Caspian Demo
Splinter Cell highlights the gulf in class between budget and midrange cards. The benchmark emphasises the need to adjust video settings to match a card's attributes. Our benchmark set uses maximum quality wherever possible, which is often too much for the poor ASUS v9520/TD's architecture to handle. We're sure that it would play Quake III without any problems, but it's a DX9-capable card and must be judged by later, more intensive titles.
