Splinter Cell: Conviction is a departure from the normal format for this franchise, focusing on kinetic action rather than the more deliberate, stealth-sensitive progress of the earlier games. From a technological perspective, Splinter Cell: Conviction performs admirably on a range of hardware thanks to the utilization of a 6-year-old graphics engine that has been updated to include modern features like HDR and ambient occlusion. However, it does prove surprisingly to be a burden to the GTX 470 and HD 5850 at 2560x1600 not being playable and needing to drop to 1920x1200. Once dropping resolution they are capable of running a high AA setting.

If you want just the very best performance possible in this game, the Radeon HD 5870 and the GeForce GTX 480 are equally powerful options, but the Radeon HD 5870 is definitely a better buy. If your budget is more modest or if you have a smaller than 30" display, the Radeon HD 5850 is going to give you the best bang for your video card upgrade buck. If you game above this resolution, even though it uses an older engine, you are going to have to spring for the HD 5870 or GTX 480 for this game.