Half-Life 2: Episode 2 may be based off an engine that has been around for a while, but that isn't to say that the game can't stress a modern gaming system. The latest iteration of the Source engine brings with it a few new tricks, such as particle effects acceleration, motion blur and multi-threaded support for improved performance on dual and quad-core CPUs.
Half Life 2: Episode 2 Settings
I was only able to benchmark Episode 2 at the resolution of 1920x1200 due to some errors currently affecting my Steam installation. The benchmark results are obtained from a timedemo recorded within the ep2_outland_10a level which is a fairly short and repeatable level which brings forth a number of effects within the game, such as the High Dynamic Range (HDR) rendering of outdoor scenes, water exhibiting reflection an refraction characteristics, a scripted animation sequence and several physical, particle and shader effects.
Half-Life 2: Episode 2 Performance
The XFX GeForce 8800 GT XXX performed admirably in this test, providing ample performance under all circumstances at 1920x1200 with various levels of AA and AF enabled.
TEAM FORTRESS 2
TEAM FORTRESS 2
Team Fortress 2 turns the Source engine upside-down, by taking a stylized cartoon-like approach to team versus team combat. The effect is made possible via some proprietary techniques combined with Phong shading.
Team Fortress 2 Settings
The benchmark was recorded from an intense gaming session on a 24 person server, where when killed, the camera was always pointed toward the heated battles at the various focal points in the map.
Team Fortress 2 Performance
The results were rather surprising and are very different than those from Half Life 2: Episode 2 where Team Fortress 2's unique visual style has placed a CPU bottleneck on performance. This is clearly seen by the minute performance delta between the resolutions and the anti aliasing levels. The XFX GeForce 8800 GT XXX can handle pretty much anything Team Fortress 2 can throw at it at high resolutions.
