Splinter Cell, Continued
For our tests, we selected projected shadows for all cards, though, since the framerate took a hit when buffered shadows were enabled.
NVIDIA's driver version 42.72, which the company is currently suggesting as the "proper" driver release for FX cards, has some rendering problems in this game (no glowing effect around lamps and such). Instead, we benchmarked using version 43.00, which fixes the problem. Interestingly, GeForce4 cards didn't have any issues when used with driver version 42.72, but would score around 2 fps lower with version 43.00.
Splinter Cell was tested with all details set to maximum (High, High, Very High).
Splinter Cell impressively proves that standard tests, meaning without FSAA and anisotropic filtering, still have their place in the benchmarking sense - at least if the cards are pushed enough by a game that uses complex effects. The Radeon 9800 PRO and the GeForceFX 5800 Ultra are head to head, and the Radeon 9700 PRO is tied with the GeForceFX 5800.
