Half-Life 2: Episode Two
For our final two tests, we’re going to the oddballs of the bunch. First up is Episode 2 of Half Life 2, which is selected because it’s a DX9 title with a decent ability to put strain on modern hardware. Not to mention, people still love this game and the Source engine is still used in a lot of new games you know and love (Portal anyone?). Still you wouldn’t guess it by looking at these numbers.
With results like this, the game is anything but unplayable. The GTX 295 is definitely the champ once again, taking a commanding lead over the other GTX 200 series cards. No surprises here.
The same results are shown in the second HL2:EP2 demo. The GTX 295 gives everyone a decent beatdown. As for the GTX 285, it’s happy to simply be better then the GTX 280, if only by a percentage or two less then 10.
With this kind of breathing room in a DirectX9 title, you can start enabling all the little features and abilities that API can support. Our gameplay through Half Life 2: Episode 2 (as well as other similar Source-based games) was wonderful looking and without issue. If you were to combine this setup with a good set of 5.1 headphones or speakers, the experience would be anything if not immersive.
World in Conflict
Finally we turn to our only Real-time strategy game in this entire line-up. World in Conflict is one of those RTS titles that shows how far the RTS genre has evolved visually. This game fully supports DX10, and has some nice 3D candy to go with this make war not love setting.
As for the results of our benchmarks, the story is the same as it has been with the other test, though in this case the results are much tighter. With all that in mind, I can still say that these two cards will be the best performing cards you can get . . . until AMD get’s its act together and formulates a proper response.
When we turned to actually playing the game, the visual experience was different then what you would need on an FPS title. With FPS games, framerate is everything, and lag is death. In RTS titles, a minor slowdown isn’t going to impede your overall gameplay. So with that in mind I say that these cards are great performers for those who like their 3D RTS games. Taking the numbers posted into account, this game if more than playable.