Galaxy GeForce 6600 GT SmartFlash

Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory

Publisher: Ubisoft

We are using the full version of Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory patched to version 1.02. It features a new game engine that has been created around a heavily modified Unreal Engine 2 - the important thing to note is that the game only has two Shader profiles: Shader Model 1.1 and Shader Model 3.0. This means that all of ATI's video cards default to Shader Model 1.1, and only the GeForce 6 series are capable of using the Shader Model 3.0 path.

Despite the fact that ATI's cards only use a DirectX 8.1, Shader Model 1.1 path, the quality of rendering is fantastic in comparison to the Shader Model 3.0 rendering. However, the Shader Model 3.0 profile means that the GeForce 6 series and higher video cards are given a number of options for additional eye candy, including Parallax Mapping, High Dynamic Range Rendering, Tone Mapping and High-Quality Soft Shadows. These can all be enabled on GeForce 6 and GeForce 7 series video cards, and will make the gaming experience more realistic providing there is enough graphics processing power available.

We configured both Anti-Aliasing and Anisotropic Filtering from within the game, and thus the driver control panel was left set to "Application Controlled".

Below is a table of the best-playable settings that we found best for each video card configuration. In this title, we found that 25 to 30 frames per second minimum and a target of 50 frames per second (or higher) for the average frame rate delivered a smooth and fluid gaming experience across the rest of the game.

The differences in rendering quality makes this title one that looks a damn sight better on any GeForce 6-series video card. While we were not able to apply any of the additional Shader Model 3.0 details in this title has, we had to drop the texture quality on the Radeon X700 Pro to ensure that game play was smooth in this title.

Again, the gaming experience delivered by the GeForce 6600 GT was relatively untouched by the slower Radeon X700 Pro in this title. We actually found that the GeForce 6600 GT delivered a slightly higher frame rate than what we achieved with the Radeon X700 Pro with its lower detail settings.