Splinter Cell: Double Agent: A Performance Analysis
by Josh Venning on December 8, 2006 2:10 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Test Settings
We tested Double Agent on a variety of cards from both ATI and NVIDIA, all of which support SM3.0. The ATI cards we tested were the X1300 XT, X1650 Pro, X1650 XT, X1950 Pro, X1900 XT 256MB, and finally the X1950 XTX. From NVIDIA, we tested the 7300 GS, 7300 GT, 7600 GS, 7600 GT, 7950 GT and 7900 GTX. Without SLI support the 7950 GX2 was unable to perform as it should given it is effectively single-card SLI; the GX2 saw frame rates lower than our single 7950 GT, thus it was excluded from our tests. Also, NVIDIA's 8800 cards were excluded from tests due to rendering errors during gameplay. While the game did run on our 8800, the Sam Fisher model was warped and twisted into a very strange shape making gameplay pretty much impossible, as the image shows below. Hopefully we will see a patch for the game that will address this, along with the other SLI/CrossFire issues and various bugs soon.
Since Double Agent is still mainly a game of stealth, a very high frame rate is not necessary for a decent gameplay experience. We found that an average frame rate of no less than 15fps was smooth enough to provide good gameplay, but any less and the game starts to get choppy. Even though 15fps was still playable, though, 25fps and higher is definitely preferred. Here is the test system we used for these benchmarks.
We tested Double Agent on a variety of cards from both ATI and NVIDIA, all of which support SM3.0. The ATI cards we tested were the X1300 XT, X1650 Pro, X1650 XT, X1950 Pro, X1900 XT 256MB, and finally the X1950 XTX. From NVIDIA, we tested the 7300 GS, 7300 GT, 7600 GS, 7600 GT, 7950 GT and 7900 GTX. Without SLI support the 7950 GX2 was unable to perform as it should given it is effectively single-card SLI; the GX2 saw frame rates lower than our single 7950 GT, thus it was excluded from our tests. Also, NVIDIA's 8800 cards were excluded from tests due to rendering errors during gameplay. While the game did run on our 8800, the Sam Fisher model was warped and twisted into a very strange shape making gameplay pretty much impossible, as the image shows below. Hopefully we will see a patch for the game that will address this, along with the other SLI/CrossFire issues and various bugs soon.
Since Double Agent is still mainly a game of stealth, a very high frame rate is not necessary for a decent gameplay experience. We found that an average frame rate of no less than 15fps was smooth enough to provide good gameplay, but any less and the game starts to get choppy. Even though 15fps was still playable, though, 25fps and higher is definitely preferred. Here is the test system we used for these benchmarks.
| Sytem Test Configuration | |
| CPU: | Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 (2.93GHz/4MB) |
| Motherboard: | EVGA nForce 680i SLI Intel BadAxe |
| Chipset: | NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI Intel 975X |
| Chipset Drivers: | Intel 7.2.2.1007 (Intel) NVIDIA nForce 9.35 |
| Hard Disk: | Seagate 7200.7 160GB SATA |
| Memory: | Corsair XMS2 DDR2-800 4-4-4-12 (1GB x 2) |
| Video Card: | Various |
| Video Drivers: | ATI Catalyst 6.10 NVIDIA ForceWare 96.97 NVIDIA ForceWare 91.47 (G70 SLI) |
| Desktop Resolution: | 2560 x 1600 - 32-bit @ 60Hz |
| OS: | Windows XP Professional SP2 |
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mpc7488 - Friday, December 8, 2006 - link
Neverwinter Nights 2 would be my vote. From the reviews I've read and my experience, it's even more difficult to run than Oblivion (though it's not clear why, the graphics are not that great in most instances, though the lighting effects are phenominal).Centurin - Friday, December 8, 2006 - link
Neverwinter Nights 2 has framerate problems because of the engine. I wouldn't really use it to benchmark future games. I still feel that Oblivion is the best benchmarks for graphics at this point.DukeN - Friday, December 8, 2006 - link
Where are the 8800 series benchmarks?Josh Venning - Friday, December 8, 2006 - link
As we mentioned in the article, the 8800 cards weren't rendering the game properly. The graphical errors with Double Agent on the 8800 GTS and GTX made the game basically impossible to play. That's why we didn't include numbers for these cards. Hopefully when a patch or driver update fixes this issue we can see how the game performs on the 8800 in the future.Jodiuh - Friday, December 8, 2006 - link
97.44 on NV's site now...Splinter Cell: Double Agent Single Player has geometry corruption.
Jodiuh - Friday, December 8, 2006 - link
^^ That's under issue resolved.PrinceGaz - Friday, December 8, 2006 - link
The GeForce 6 series cards support SM3.0 so could you please add results for some representative cards of that generation. I would suggest a 6800GT (which usually performs in between a 7600GS and 7600GT so would probably belong in the 'mid-range' category) and a 6600GT (which I guess is somewhere around the 7300GT level or slightly higher and would therefore be considered 'low-end').I know the GF6 cards are getting on a bit now but there are a lot of people still using them as they are still capable of running most games quite well (especially the 6800s), and including them makes sense as owners of them are probably the most likely to be considering an upgrade which is what an article like this is presumably intended for.
imaheadcase - Friday, December 8, 2006 - link
From the performance I'm assuming it looks better when playing, because that looks like a console game graphics. heheshabby - Friday, December 8, 2006 - link
The only thing this article is missing is different cpu's, but let me fill that void. With a p4 @ 3.2 ghz + x1900xtx i get around 10-20fps avg. Luckily my e6400 just arrive and i will finally get some decent fps now since the p4 seems like a huge bottleneck.yyrkoon - Friday, December 8, 2006 - link
Forcing paying customers to BETA test games, seems to be becoming a habit among developers, and is simply wrong. Anyone remember the BC 3000 A.D. days and what happened to Derrik Smart ? Anyhow, hoping that Bethesda made Oblivion into a game that would renew my days of playing Daggerfall, I purchased the game, and even stuck up for the developers when others criticized the bugs of the game. Days turned into weeks, then weeks into months, additional content was released (pay ware I might add), all before Bethesda finally released its beta patch. It soon dawned on me, that Bethesda no longer enjoyed creating games, or cared about making their customers happy, but only cared about making money, and that I couldn't help feeling ripped off.I do realize that game developers need to make money like anyone else, but they also need to realize that "anyone else" that works very hard for their money, when they do sell something, they need to provide a solid, working product. Could you imagine Ford, or another car manufacturer selling cars, as new, only to let the customer know AFTER they made the purchase, that some items still needed to be worked on, and that some assembly may be required ? We all know this wouldn't float for one second. After all, its not our fault the developer couldn't release a product on time, or needs money NOW to continue their product. Also, I find it rather strange, that a game recently released does not support new hardware, when games that have been out much longer do. Or did they ?
Companies such as this will find it very hard to get any of my money in the future, and I can only hope that other people will follow, and that perhaps someday we'll have game companies that actually release games as advertised once again. It's hard enough that we gamers have to live with games that are no longer as dynamic as they once were, and have to pay $50usd for game content that lasts about 5-8 hours, before you start reliving the game over, and over, until it finally ends.