17. DirectX 8: Splinter Cell

Splinter Cell is well-known for its highly complex light and shadow effects as well as pixel shader effects (v1.1). The frame rate is determined partly by normal 3D calculations and partly by shadow calculations.

In introducing the Winbook W earlier in this article, we pointed out a special aspect of the default setting for Powerplay in the graphics card driver. Notice here how drastically the frame rate decreases when the graphics unit runs in battery-powered mode with the default settings. Keep in mind that the graphics core and memory are clocked at a mere 105 MHz in this case.

The chart shows that in this situation, where the settings are otherwise identical, the graphics performance drops to less than half.