ATI Radeon X800 GT: A Quality Mid-range Solution
by Josh Venning on September 28, 2005 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Splinter Cell Chaos Theory Performance
While the latest patch enables HDR support on SM2.0 cards as well as SM3.0, despite claims to the contrary, HDR is not a feature of SM3.0 – we have done the testing here without HDR. Enabling HDR causes a serious performance hit on all cards. So, short of SLI setups or a 7800 series card, it's probably not worth using at the cost of higher resolutions.
Note that with Splinter Cell: CT, we see how the FPS of each of these mid-range cards only differ a tiny amount from each other, not nearly enough to cause a noticeable difference in gameplay. With games like this and Everquest 2, saving an extra $40 on a graphics card that performs this well seems like a good deal.
While the latest patch enables HDR support on SM2.0 cards as well as SM3.0, despite claims to the contrary, HDR is not a feature of SM3.0 – we have done the testing here without HDR. Enabling HDR causes a serious performance hit on all cards. So, short of SLI setups or a 7800 series card, it's probably not worth using at the cost of higher resolutions.
Note that with Splinter Cell: CT, we see how the FPS of each of these mid-range cards only differ a tiny amount from each other, not nearly enough to cause a noticeable difference in gameplay. With games like this and Everquest 2, saving an extra $40 on a graphics card that performs this well seems like a good deal.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
48 Comments
View All Comments
JarredWalton - Wednesday, September 28, 2005 - link
It's okay, Paul - we know how names with the first letter can get mixed up. ;)A few of the paragraphs are mine, but I doubt anyone would be able to pick them out. LOL. It's like "Where's Waldo": where's the paragraph written by a different editor?
ViRGE - Wednesday, September 28, 2005 - link
It went up nearly 2 days ago then disappeared, and now it's finally back up. What happened?DerekWilson - Wednesday, September 28, 2005 - link
Technical difficulties :-)We worked it out though
overclockingoodness - Wednesday, September 28, 2005 - link
Whenever you see an article disappear like that, just know that they published it accidently. Although I must say, you guys have been having technical difficulties for quite a bit lately.I probably wouldn't mind if the ATI R520 article went up early due to technical difficulties. ;)
DerekWilson - Wednesday, September 28, 2005 - link
hehe ... If we could possibly get it done early, that might be a problem :-) But we'll be working hard and late on that one.rqle - Wednesday, September 28, 2005 - link
On the Power Consumption page, is that the WHOLE system power draw (cpu, hd, video card, ram, board) or is it just then Video card?rqle - Wednesday, September 28, 2005 - link
nvm, didnt read it clear the first way throughnourdmrolNMT1 - Wednesday, September 28, 2005 - link
my 9800 pro is seriously taking a beating.maybe this christmas ill get a whole new inside. since upgrading my gpu means upgrading my mobo too.
hmm
ShadowVlican - Wednesday, September 28, 2005 - link
oh man.. these cards are supposed to cater to different price points, but now there's so many cards that it makes it even more confusing to buy... i'll stick with 6600GT because of purevideo (next pc = htpc)Jep4444 - Wednesday, September 28, 2005 - link
ATIs next generation cards are supposedly one upping nVidia with Pure Video with H.264 encoding and while your at it, you may want to look into the whole Avivo thing since it seems to be up your alley(although i guess alot of it is marketing, im just referring to the concept in general)that aside i don't know why you recomend the X800XT to those needing to play at those settings at all completely ignoring the X800XL which at times has reached price levels below $250