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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sdedward - Friday, December 8, 2006 - link
Have you ever gotten a recall letter in the mail? Thats basically what it says.
shabby - Friday, December 8, 2006 - link
But every car doesnt have a recall. Today it seems like every game gets patched before it even hits stores.Josh Venning - Friday, December 8, 2006 - link
It is very frustrating when a game is released that seems as unfinished as this. The problem is that unlike with other types of products, it's not very easy to pin down who/what exactly is responsible for the problems. Regardless of this, the consumer is the one who ends up suffering, and that's just unacceptable. Thanks for your comments.Jodiuh - Friday, December 8, 2006 - link
Printing now! Thanks for continuing to provide that button. Quite a few sites have removed it and they wind up not getting their arty's read. My notebook gets hot, so I prefer to read these on paper in a comfy chair, couch, bed, etc. :DSomewhat OT, should I be playing the SC series in order? I played through about 25% of the first one and maybe 10 minutes of Chaos Theory. Are they good enough to play through? Should I just play Double Agent?
Le Québécois - Friday, December 8, 2006 - link
Yes I think playing all the SC series in order would be a good thing since every one of them was(still is) a very good game(if you like the stealth/assassin kind of game of course).The older ones should be pretty cheap to buy IF you manage to find them.
Years after years I am pretty amaze that Ubisoft can come with a pretty good game franchise with so little time between the release of each games.
Jodiuh - Friday, December 8, 2006 - link
Buddy's gonna let me borrow the first one. I'll hit it up after HL2.Josh Venning - Friday, December 8, 2006 - link
I personally only played Chaos Theory and Double Agent, but I found them both to be very enjoyable. I think the storyline of Chaos Theory might have been a little better than Double Agent, especially towards the end, but Double Agent had some more interesting gameplay scenarios. I highly recommend playing them both through though, if you can.Jodiuh - Friday, December 8, 2006 - link
Just got through the article...I guess I'll start w/ a SC game that'll run on my card then, lol. This has to be the worst evidence yet of console porting. Normally, it's the interface that sucks. But DA screams port in a hardware way!! And it makes me hate the consoles even more...