Half Life 2: Episode 2 Quick Performance Preview

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Brent_Justice

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Half Life 2: Episode 2 Quick Performance Preview

We are working on a full performance and image quality apples-to-apples article comparing the Radeon 2900 XT and GeForce 8 series video cards. Until that is ready we’d like to share with you our first performance experiences with the game with a quick apples-to-apples performance comparison. The graphs below consist of a run-through of the entire first level of Half Life 2: Episode 2 in an apples-to-apples format. We have chosen to run at 1600x1200 4XAA/16XAF maximum in-game settings on all video cards under Windows Vista x64 Ultimate using Catalyst 7.10 for the 2900 XT and ForceWare 163.75 for the GeForce 8 series video cards.
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Discuss.

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never expected this game to use much resources, so I'm glad to see it still very playable.
 
7.10 aren't available yet either. but it's disappointing to see an engine that was supposed to go hand and hand with the Radeon series cards consistently get outperformed by Nvidia. The 2900 has been out for a while but even using the 7.10 drivers doesn't seem to bring their flagship card the same level as the 8800 GTX/Ultra...I haven't owned an Nvidia card since the TI4600 series but it appears I may pick up an 8800 series or wait till next gen comes out. But from the screenshots it appears that this is game looks awsome and I'll be playing myself when I get off of work.
 
I'm anxious to see some numbers comparing single, dual, and quad core in this game, since Valve made it multi-threaded.
 
Proofreading:

As you can see from the graph the 320 MB and 640 MB 8800 GTS are technically faster than the 2900 XT in an apples-to-apples comparison so far in HL2: EP2, but not by a wide margin. The 8800 GTX and Ultra completely obliterate the GTS and 2900 XT in performance in this game. Having only played the first level so far, these high performance results inspires confidence in the playability of this game with mainstream-performance video cards in the $250-300 range.
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Because 'results' is plural, the verb should be inspire.


Cool read. Great pics, too. I haven't even played H-L 2 yet! Stupid poverty.
 
For the few minutes that I played it on my SLI'd 7900's, it was completely smooth, even during the portal storm bit right at the beginning. I'm looking forward to my eventual upgrade though.

Rock&Roll said:
I'm anxious to see some numbers comparing single, dual, and quad core in this game, since Valve made it multi-threaded.
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I'd love to see this comparison as well. Any chance we'll see an article including that?
 
Good stuff, looks as if 320MB cards perform well with this game. Nice to see it's quicker than a 2900. Good thing after the WiC debacle.
 
I can't wait until I get home to purchase Episode 2 off of Steam and play it on my 8800 GTX SLI setup!

Thanks for the preview [H]!
 
Hmmmm...

I played HL-2 on my AMD2400+ with a Radeon 9800 Pro and 512MB of RAM - Unfortunately for me the only thing that has changed on my rig is its now 1GB or RAM but otherwise still the same.:eek:

Did the req's for EP2 change a lot or can I play it on my old comp just with the eye candy way down (playing at 1024X768 usually)?

Was hoping to scrape by with some TF2 goodness before upgrading in the spring (was going to wait for Penryn - theoretically)....
 
Chemtec said:
Hmmmm...

I played HL-2 on my AMD2400+ with a Radeon 9800 Pro and 512MB of RAM - Unfortunately for me the only thing that has changed on my rig is its now 1GB or RAM but otherwise still the same.:eek:

Did the req's for EP2 change a lot or can I play it on my old comp just with the eye candy way down (playing at 1024X768 usually)?

Was hoping to scrape by with some TF2 goodness before upgrading in the spring (was going to wait for Penryn - theoretically)....
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I play with my 6800gt at 1680x1050 with everything on, not maxed but on, and it runs fine.
 
Well I'd like to see some numbers of 8800GTX of SLI and non-SLI performance. I have just one 8800GTX and TF2 is primarily what I'll be playing. I game at 1920x1200 so I wonder what the performance will be like there.

Just picked up my pre-order during lunch. I can't wait to go home and try it out!

Also a nice winXP vs winVista comparison for this game wouldn't be bad either. And I do like the thought of single, dual, and quad reviews of the game's performance.
 
Any chance those fps graphs can get something done to the "important" lines? The fps graphs in all the reviews are always hard to read. A bold or different color lines at the 30, 60, and 100 fps marks would be nice (personally, I'm only interested in 30 and 60, because for me 30 is playable and 60 is smooth, but some claim to be able to notice a difference at 100, even though I'm pretty sure they're crazy). Surely I'm not the first person to say something about it.
 
Has this game been optimized for multicore ? I remember hearing about some tweaks that valve/steam was doing, not sure if it was related to this title though.
 
xZAOx said:
Any chance those fps graphs can get something done to the "important" lines? The fps graphs in all the reviews are always hard to read. A bold or different color lines at the 30, 60, and 100 fps marks would be nice (personally, I'm only interested in 30 and 60, because for me 30 is playable and 60 is smooth, but some claim to be able to notice a difference at 100, even though I'm pretty sure they're crazy). Surely I'm not the first person to say something about it.
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Sure, I can put those line colors in for the full version article.
 
Darkatom said:
Has this game been optimized for multicore ? I remember hearing about some tweaks that valve/steam was doing, not sure if it was related to this title though.
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Ep2 was the game that they were going to implement multi-core into, and then later implement it better into all the other Half life 2 games I believe... but whether that has happened or not we will have to see some benchmarks on.

Good job Brent, nice to see the game runs as silky-smooth as always :D
 
whats the difference on buying off the steam site and buying it from retail store?
 
The source engine is really amazing coupled with capable artists. It's old and it runs really, really well, but it can still compete with the new ones.
 
The HDR and subtle light bloom is nice, the motion blur is also very good, not annoying like some other games. My only complaint so far is the rather simple outdoor ground foliage.
 
Obi_Kwiet said:
The source engine is really amazing coupled with capable artists. It's old and it runs really, really well, but it can still compete with the new ones.
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agreed
I went to bed before Ep2 was unlocked last night, but played it for like 5 mins this morning, and I was impressed how good the engine still looks.
 
Man, I love the Source engine! :D

I'll be getting the Orange Box tomorrow or Friday. It looks like the 8800GTS 320MB does well in this game, which is good news :)
 
It sucks, I have been pre-loading it for a week now and it is still stuck at 44%, and wont download anymore because it tells me the servers are too busy to process my request, LOL> pay money and you have to wish that their servers can handle the load.

I have left my pc on for two days now and still the servers are too busy, Pathetic service from one of the biggest online distributors. I never had any problems like this with steam I guess they get too comfortable until a big release like this hits them before they realize something.

anyhow if I hadn't purchased it through steam I would have just went out and bought it.

LOL> I read a comment online and the person said something like this "that this game runs so good on single card, may be I should get another gtx and it will fly with sli" lol, why would you get another card for a game that already runs great. may be for a game that struggles on a single card.
 
NKD said:
It sucks, I have been pre-loading it for a week now and it is still stuck at 44%, and wont download anymore because it tells me the servers are too busy to process my request, LOL> pay money and you have to wish that their servers can handle the load.

I have left my pc on for two days now and still the servers are too busy, Pathetic service from one of the biggest online distributors. I never had any problems like this with steam I guess they get too comfortable until a big release like this hits them before they realize something.

anyhow if I hadn't purchased it through steam I would have just went out and bought it.

LOL> I read a comment online and the person said something like this "that this game runs so good on single card, may be I should get another gtx and it will fly with sli" lol, why would you get another card for a game that already runs great. may be for a game that struggles on a single card.
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Try restarting steam?
 
I heard that as well, and I'll check it again when I get home, but when I closed out of the game this morning on my way to the office, I noticed it was only using 1 core.. one core to the fullest mind you, but it wasn't touching the 2nd core

X2 5600+ OC to 3.01

Can anyone else confirm this?

Rock&Roll said:
I'm anxious to see some numbers comparing single, dual, and quad core in this game, since Valve made it multi-threaded.
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Silentbob343 said:
Crazy that at one point the frames dip to 20 with these new cards.
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Haven't had any dips below 30 at 16x10/8xCSAA/16xAF (not during gameplay, anyway), though the Source engine can still get a little "stuttery".
 
Manny Calavera said:
Did not Gabe Newel tells us all that EP2 would include the new multi core enhancements ? .....and show case them even ?
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its funny because even the damn mods are telling people that the game supports multi-core. it clearly hasnt been implemented yet as I am getting 100% on one care and about 5% on the other.
 
Darkatom said:
Has this game been optimized for multicore ? I remember hearing about some tweaks that valve/steam was doing, not sure if it was related to this title though.
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I want [H] to aske Valve what happened to the loud proclamations made and echoed in this article ?

Also does [H] plan on testing this out in the near future? I did think this one was well done,for a preview of sorts. :) But,I am extremely curious of thier recent promises,and
if they are following through with actual real world results.
 
dennab205 said:
its funny because even the damn mods are telling people that the game supports multi-core. it clearly hasnt been implemented yet as I am getting 100% on one care and about 5% on the other.
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You and two people from my 2nd year Sociology class said the same thing,one on a quad
Q6600 @ 3.0,the other on a x2 4400 @ 2.5.

All have said that they see no current use of the extra cores.
 
geaowe said:
Doesn't look like Valve included the multi-core support update. What a disappointment, to say the least.

Here is a screenshot of taskmgr after playing hl2: ep2:
http://www.mldweb.com/cpu1.jpg

There is a similar discussion on the steam forums:
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=609216&page=2
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I only bought HL2 game of the year Ed this past August (EB , 29.99),after reading about how great it was,the second coming,and all that and a bag of chips.So when Kyle did that article,I and I am sure others,were rightfully excited and hopeful.More so given all the other titles that are slowly,but surely hitting store shelves,as well as being dual core aware,if not even quad core aware... ( SC,Stranglehold,Bioshock,UT3,WIC,Jericho,Crysis,HG:L,The Witcher,etc,etc...)

For Valve to still be so far behind the curve,given their truly titanic financial resources not to mention programming resources,is shocking,and disappointing,to say the least !

:eek: :(
 
Well I guess the real disappointment is that Valve has been silent, leaving its users (read customers) to guess and speculate and post screenshots and wait for a steampowered forum admin to approve my account so I can ***** there, too.

btw ep2 looks great, thanks valve.
 
The games running super smoothly, so it's not like we NEED it multi-threaded. All it would do is balance out about 50% on each core if it's dual.

But still, Valve PROMISED that Episode 2 would be multi-core optimized, which I thought was why it was delayed almost a year. They promised us amazing physics dammit! Not that they exactly failed... but I understand why people are a little peeved for not seeing their dual-cores being utilized, it was promised and delayed. *shrug*
 
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