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PC Mark 2004PCMark®04 is the latest version of the popular PCMark series. PCMark04 is an application-based benchmark and a premium tool for measuring overall PC performance. It uses portions of real applications instead of including very large applications or using specifically created code. This allows PCMark04 to be a smaller installation as well as to report very accurate results. As far as possible, PCMark04 uses public domain applications whose source code can be freely examined by any user.
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Another synthetic benchmark that displays memory performance. We expect this memory to perform at a ~4200 score. And it does precisely that.
I also included the results at default SPD 2.5:3:3:6 timings @ 400 MHz (2x200) followed by the standard 2:2:2:5 timings (+ PEM on and off, that's properly stated in the graph). As you can see the score differs slightly. Keep that in mind in our gaming benchmarks as I will show you something. That something being what difference timings actually make in real world applications.
Splinter Cell
In our Benchmark suite is the very popular game Splinter Cell. Making a believable world for a spy to play in is quite a daunting task, but the levels are varied, filled with appropriate objects, and designed so that you usually dont have to choose between too many paths. It wouldve been great if you couldve had several points of entrance and that way get a lot more replay-value. Sam and the rest of the characters do look terrific, with high polygon models and both crisp and appropriate looking textures. What really separates Splinter Cell from most recent action games is the use of shadows. Splinter Cell uses the Unreal engine, which weve seen in several great looking games the past months, but UbiSoft also added improved lighting. By using real-time cast shadows, lightmaps, etc, this title gives you some of the best looking shadows to date.
In response to the growing use of sophisticated digital encryption to conceal potential threats to the national security of the United States, the NSA (National Security Agency) has ushered forth a new dawn of intelligence-gathering techniques. This top-secret initiative is dubbed Third Echelon. Denied to exist by the U.S. government, Third Echelon deploys elite intelligence-gathering units consisting of a lone field operative supported by a remote team. Like a sliver of glass, a Splinter Cell is small, sharp, and nearly invisible.
You have the right to spy, steal, destroy and assassinate, to ensure that American freedoms are protected. If captured, the U.S. government will disavow any knowledge of your existence.
You are Sam Fisher.
You are a Splinter Cell.
Splinter Cell is a DirectX 8/9 title and can handle Pixel Shaders if your card supports it. The downside of this nice piece of software is that it has different modes for different classes of hardware. We designed a configuration that is nearly the same for all graphics cards, however any low-end graphics card that does not support Pixel Shaders will reproduce a slightly different score. Secondly Splinter Cell has two shadowing techniques, Projector and Buffer mode. We force Projector mode in high detail on all graphics cards. Again, graphics cards without shader capabilities will run into a problem as they do not support it. We are talking about GeForce4 MX and earlier models (excluding the GeForce 3 series) only. With that in mind, this software really is an excellent benchmark. Small sidenote, we are not using the standard timedemo's.
Let's take a look at some of the benchmark numbers. Unlike some of the future games Splinter Cell doesnt use per-pixel lighting, so the framerate should be quite good even for owners of mid-end PCs.
*cough* Yes the gaming benchmarks we'll purely look at the effect of memory bandwidth. Splinter Cell is absolutely one of the worst games to show memory performance as it is really graphics card dependant. We still include it to show you that memory does not always has an effect.
Measuring CPU, Memory or mainboard performance normally should be done at the lowest monitor resolution possible. You'll notice that on most sites you'll get the results at 640x480 ect. While that is a very good method to produce static numbers to show performance differences I simplely do not believe in such an explanation. I want you to look at real world performance, thus we run the system like you would do at home, at normal resolutions and normal settings. So what you need to look at in these results are the tiny differences between the selected platforms. You'll notice that 1024x768 often is different between the platforms and 1600x1200 often closer, the last one is because of the graphics card, it's running at it's maximum and thus a bottleneck.
CPU's differ, chipset platforms differ. We give you the big picture. All in all, fantastic performance. Yet memory bandwidth does not have an effect on Splinter Cell whatsoever. It made sense as it is a very graphics card dependant game. Let's have a look at some games that are not.
