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Half-Life 2 Graphical Performance Evaluation |
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Written by Phyro
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Wednesday, 17 November 2004 |
TheTechLounge has put up an article on Half-Life 2. Just over one year ago, on September 30th, 2003, one of the greatest games of all time was to be released. As you probably know, the game I speak of is Half-Life 2, and unfortunately it was not released on time. Despite the fact that Valve missed the deadline by over a year, Half-Life 2 still breaks a lot of ground.
 Half-Life 2 Graphical Performance Evaluation
For five years this game has been under development, and for good reason. Half-Life 2 promises to be a revolutionary new game that delivers more than any other game ever could. One of the most exciting things about Half-Life 2 is the new physics system which allows you to interact with everything in the environment. Couple that with some amazing characters, weapons, and vehicles and you're in for one hell of a good time.
As expected, the X800 XT reigned supreme in our testing, never dropping below 40 frames per second average even at 1600x1200 with 4xAA/8xAF. The high-end cards currently on the market don't come cheap, but they offer unparalleled performance in the latest games, allowing for smooth gameplay with outstanding image quality.
The XFX 6800 GT and ATI X800 Pro both fared quite well in the timedemos, with the X800 Pro pulling ahead a little bit at higher resolutions with 4xAA/8xAF. These cards would make for a very pleasant gaming experience with good image quality.
Leadtek's 6600 GT performed pretty well in Half-Life 2 considering that it is a budget card. If you can live without AA/AF, then this card would give you smooth gameplay the majority of the time at 1280x1024.
The Leadtek FX5950 Ultra performed admirably, but it had some issues with image and shader quality. Something to note here is that the card was using DX 8.1. I wouldn’t recommend the FX series of nVidia cards for Half-Life 2.
The PowerColor X600 XT did not fare as well as the rest, but this was to be expected. I most definitely do not recommend the X600 series of cards for Half-Life 2. Unfortunately, even without AA/AF, you can expect less than acceptable performance in Half-Life 2 at anything beyond 1024x768.
All in all, what we have found is that Half-Life 2 is only moderately to heavily graphics-intensive. With some of the newer middle-of-the-road cards such as the 6600 GT, you can experience Half-Life 2 without constant annoying sputtering, with lower AA/AF/Resolution settings that is. If you drop a little more cash on a card such as the 6800 GT or X800 Pro, you will be able to really get into the game by cranking up the AA/AF and resolution a little bit for some really nice graphics while still retaining smooth gameplay. Of course, you get what you pay for, and the X800 XT is no exception - this card will allow you to play at some of the highest settings without sacrificing precious FPS.
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ASUS 9800GTX+ (DK) PCIe 512MB - Rev 01
