Half-Life 2 is a popular franchise and we benchmark the video cards using Episode Two with the aid of HOC Half-Life 2 Episode Two benchmarking utility using the “HOC Demo 1” provided by this program. We ran the game in three 16:10 widescreen resolutions, 1680x1050, 1920x1200 and 2560x1600, under two scenarios. First with quality set to maximum, bilinear filtering and anti-aliasing set to x0. This configuration we are calling “low” on the charts and tables below. Then we maxed out image quality settings, enabling x16 anisotropic filtering and 16xQCS anti-aliasing. This configuration we are calling “high” on our charts and tables. We updated the game up to the June 9^th 2008 patch.

Half-Life 2: Episode Two -1680x1050 - Low	Score	Difference
Sapphire Radeon HD 4850	164.9
Sapphire Atomic Radeon HD 3870 X2	160.4	2.81%
GeForce GTX 280	156.3	5.50%
GeForce 9800 GTX	153.8	7.22%
Radeon HD 3870	145.7	13.18%
GeForce 9800 GX2	136.8	20.54%

Half-Life 2: Episode Two - 1920x1200 - Low	Score	Difference
Sapphire Atomic Radeon HD 3870 X2	156.7	4.61%
GeForce GTX 280	156.3	4.34%
Sapphire Radeon HD 4850	149.8
GeForce 9800 GTX	146.9	1.97%
GeForce 9800 GX2	135.2	10.80%
Radeon HD 3870	120.1	24.73%

Half-Life 2: Episode Two - 2560x1600 - Low	Score	Difference
GeForce GTX 280	145.1	54.53%
GeForce 9800 GX2	130.6	39.08%
Sapphire Atomic Radeon HD 3870 X2	129.7	38.13%
GeForce 9800 GTX	107.9	14.91%
Sapphire Radeon HD 4850	93.9
Radeon HD 3870	72.8	28.98%

Half-Life 2: Episode Two - 1680x1050 – High	Score	Difference
GeForce 9800 GTX	137.9	18.67%
Sapphire Atomic Radeon HD 3870 X2	126.1	8.52%
GeForce 9800 GX2	125.4	7.92%
Sapphire Radeon HD 4850	116.2
GeForce GTX 280	89.3	30.12%
Radeon HD 3870	68.3	70.13%

Half-Life 2: Episode Two - 1920x1200 – High	Score	Difference
GeForce 9800 GTX	116.3	19.65%
GeForce 9800 GX2	111.1	14.30%
Sapphire Atomic Radeon HD 3870 X2	106.5	9.57%
Sapphire Radeon HD 4850	97.2
GeForce GTX 280	70.3	38.26%
Radeon HD 3870	56.8	71.13%

Half-Life 2: Episode Two - 2560x1600 – High	Score	Difference
GeForce 9800 GTX	71.3	22.09%
Sapphire Radeon HD 4850	58.4
Sapphire Atomic Radeon HD 3870 X2	50.6	15.42%
GeForce 9800 GX2	37.5	55.73%
GeForce GTX 280	35.5	64.51%
Radeon HD 3870	34.9	67.34%