GeForce 8800 GTX and GTS SLI Performance Update
Half Life 2: Episode 1
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;) Half Life 2: Episode 1 |
Thanks to the dedication of hardcore PC gamers and a huge mod-community, the original Half-Life became one of the most successful first person shooters of all time. So, when Valve announced Half-Life 2 was close to completion, gamers the world over sat in eager anticipation. Upon its release, HL2 was universally lauded, and the sequel won an array of "Game of the Year" awards. Armed with the latest episodic update to HL2, Episode 1, we benchmarked the game with a long, custom-recorded timedemo that takes us through both outdoor and indoor environments. These tests were run at resolutions of 1,280 x 1,024 and 1,600 x 1,200 with 4X anti-aliasing and 16X anisotropic filtering enabled concurrently, and with color correction and HDR rendering enabled in the game engine as well. |
Despite its relatively advanced graphics, Half Life 2: Episode 1 was essentially CPU limited at the lower resolution, hence the similar scores among the dual-GPU platforms. With the resolution raised to 1600x1200, however, the CPU limitation is somewhat alleviated and the GeForce 8800 series cards pull way ahead of the Radeon X1950 XTX CrossFire configuration.
