Gaming Performance
Gaming performance was tested in Half-Life 2, Far Cry, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory and Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher's Bay. Based on the clock frequencies of the Chameleon, you'd expect a measurable difference in performance compared to the 6800 Ultra results on the stock-clocked HEXUS system. Our 7800 GTX comparison results hint at the kind of performance the final Chameleon will have.Half-Life 2
When CPU limited in Half-Life 2, the Chameleon system is some 20% faster than the HEXUS system. When not, the card clocks of the SLI-enabled 6800 Ultras give up a rough 3% increases, in line with the clock differences for both core and memory (some 3% higher than normal in both cases).
Far Cry
Again, when CPU limited, the Chameleon's performance is usefully faster than the comparison, stock-clocked HEXUS FX-57 system. The overclocked components strut their stuff.
When not CPU limited, the power of the 7800 GTXs show through, the Chameleon prototype's modest clock increases for the 6800 Ultras unable to really better the stock clocked boards in the HEXUS system. Overclocked 7800 GTXs in the final Chameleon should shine, based on our base performance figures.
Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
The modest card clocks don't allow the Chameleon to really shine versus a stock-clocked system based around much the same hardware.
Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher's Bay
The overclocked Chameleon really shines in the Chronicle's of Riddick test, belying the basic increases in clocks for both CPU and memory. Investigation shows the driver revision Scan are currently using for the Chameleon to be partly responsible. If I use 77.62 and overclock to the same levels with the HEXUS test system, similar improvements (although ultimately not as impressive) show themselves.
3DMark05
With my name on the end credits of 3DMark05, it'd have been rude not to run it quickly to see what the Chameleon can do. The HEXUS test system at its stock clocks with 6800 Ultras scores just under 10200.
10941 shows a near 8% performance improvement over the HEXUS system, showing off the system and graphics subsystem performance improvement to be had from the higher clocks.
