Half Life 2: Episode 1

Image Quality Settings - 0xAA 0xAF

With SLI having an effect in Episode 1, the lower tier of performance as resolution steps up in our base IQ situation contains Radeon X1950 XTX and GeForce 7900 GTX. The AMD hardware is faster in all cases. 8800 GTS is able to outrun the dual-chip 7950 GX2 until they tie at 2048x1536, and GeForce 8800 GTX is the clear leader at high resolution with over 1.5x more performance than the G71 and R580-based high-end products.

Image Quality Settings - 0xAA 16xAF

Image Quality Settings - 4xAA 0xAF

Image Quality Settings - 4xAA 16xAF

General Conclusions

The AF hit in Episode 1 is largely minimal for all the hardware on test, with AA taking the bigger bite out of performance. At the upper end of the resolution steps, GeForce 8800 GTX is by far and away the highest performing board configuration on test.