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. The results below are the average number of frames per second (FPS) achieved by each card.

Half-Life 2: Episode Two - 1680x1050 - Low	Score	Difference
Sapphire Radeon HD 4870	170.0	8.97%
Sapphire Radeon HD 4850	164.9	5.71%
Sapphire Atomic Radeon HD 3870 X2	160.4	2.82%
GeForce GTX 260	157.0	0.64%
GeForce GTX 280	156.3	0.19%
GeForce 9800 GT	156.0
GeForce 8800 GT	156.0	0.00%
GeForce 9800 GTX	153.8	1.43%
Radeon HD 3870	145.7	7.07%
GeForce 9800 GX2	136.8	14.04%
GeForce 8800 GTS	132.0	18.18%

Half-Life 2: Episode Two - 1920x1200 - Low	Score	Difference
Sapphire Radeon HD 4870	165.0	15.38%
Sapphire Atomic Radeon HD 3870 X2	156.7	9.58%
GeForce GTX 280	156.3	9.30%
GeForce GTX 260	153.0	6.99%
Sapphire Radeon HD 4850	149.8	4.76%
GeForce 9800 GTX	146.9	2.73%
GeForce 8800 GT	144.0	0.70%
GeForce 9800 GT	143.0
GeForce 9800 GX2	135.2	5.77%
Radeon HD 3870	120.1	19.07%
GeForce 8800 GTS	108.0	32.41%

Half-Life 2: Episode Two - 2560x1600 - Low	Score	Difference
GeForce GTX 280	145.1	51.15%
GeForce 9800 GX2	130.6	36.04%
Sapphire Atomic Radeon HD 3870 X2	129.7	35.10%
GeForce GTX 260	124.0	29.17%
Sapphire Radeon HD 4870	117.0	21.88%
GeForce 9800 GTX	107.9	12.40%
GeForce 8800 GT	96.0	0.00%
GeForce 9800 GT	96.0
Sapphire Radeon HD 4850	93.9	2.24%
Radeon HD 3870	72.8	31.87%
GeForce 8800 GTS	67.0	43.28%

Half-Life 2: Episode Two - 1680x1050 - High	Score	Difference
Sapphire Radeon HD 4870	144.0	80.00%
GeForce 9800 GTX	137.9	72.38%
Sapphire Atomic Radeon HD 3870 X2	126.1	57.63%
GeForce 9800 GX2	125.4	56.75%
GeForce GTX 260	121.0	51.25%
Sapphire Radeon HD 4850	116.2	45.25%
GeForce GTX 280	89.3	11.63%
GeForce 8800 GT	81.0	1.25%
GeForce 9800 GT	80.0
Radeon HD 3870	68.3	17.13%
GeForce 8800 GTS	68.0	17.65%

Half-Life 2: Episode Two - 1920x1200 - High	Score	Difference
Sapphire Radeon HD 4870	124.0	96.83%
GeForce 9800 GTX	116.3	84.60%
GeForce 9800 GX2	111.1	76.35%
Sapphire Atomic Radeon HD 3870 X2	106.5	69.05%
GeForce GTX 260	101.0	60.32%
Sapphire Radeon HD 4850	97.2	54.29%
GeForce GTX 280	70.3	11.59%
GeForce 8800 GT	64.0	1.59%
GeForce 9800 GT	63.0
Radeon HD 3870	56.8	10.92%
GeForce 8800 GTS	54.0	16.67%

Half-Life 2: Episode Two - 2560x1600 - High	Score	Difference
Sapphire Radeon HD 4870	75.0	108.33%
GeForce 9800 GTX	71.3	98.06%
GeForce GTX 260	61.0	69.44%
Sapphire Radeon HD 4850	58.4	62.22%
Sapphire Atomic Radeon HD 3870 X2	50.6	40.56%
GeForce 9800 GX2	37.5	4.17%
GeForce 9800 GT	36.0
GeForce GTX 280	35.5	1.41%
Radeon HD 3870	34.9	3.15%
GeForce 8800 GT	34.0	5.88%