Half Life 2
We ran Half Life 2 with the games suggested settings of everything on highest, with the exception of water reflections which were set to world only.
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Albatron 6600GT
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Min
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Max
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Avg
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No AA/AF, 1024x768
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22
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94
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42.13
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4xAA/4xAF, 1024x768
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17
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81
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38.66
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The 'Follow Freeman' part of the game has you running around a lot of broken buildings, underground tunnels and of course the striders, so not only do we have inside areas but also more expansive outside areas with lots of particle effects, large enemies and plenty of textures. With the games suggested settings of everything on high, world reflections only and 4xAA/4xAF the game runs very acceptably at 1024x768 on the Albatron PC6600GT. Even for Half Life 2, I was expecting a lot less performance from the PC6600GT, but it does run remarkably well. The lows rarely drop under the 35 mark, although as you look at the graph you can see it isn't all that bad with much of the play favouring the 45+ area. Spikes up to the 80's indicate the more enclosed areas of the level, such as a tunnel and an underground room at just over the halfway point on the graph. 1280x1024 can be played although you will need to drop the graphic enhancements, which makes me favour 1024x768, 4xAA,4xAF as a better choice for the PC6600GT and Half Life 2.
Image Quality
1024x768, No AA, No AF
6600GT left, X600XT right
While it is obvious that for performance in HL2, the PC6600GT wins out, for image quality it's not so clear cut. Both the Albatron PC6600GT and the X600XT displays HL2 perfectly fine and with fantastic image quality. Both provide nice anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering, especially evident in the wire fence to the rear of the shot (compare between No FSAA/AF and 4xAA/4xAF). When it comes to image quality, I'm very impressed by the Albatron PC6600GT.
1024x768, 4xAA, 4xAF
6600GT left, X600XT right
Far Cry
Using a clean config, we set the game up via the menu's for a 'High' system.
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Albatron 6600GT
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Min
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Max
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Avg
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No AA/AF, 1024x768
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30
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82
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53.42
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2xAA/4xAF, 1024x768
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26
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66
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43.9
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All this eye candy requires a bit of horsepower behind it to drive it if you want to run at high settings, and the nature of the game's visuals (natural items such as rocks, plants, mud etc.) benefit greatly from some anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering. As has been seen with other games, the Albatron PC6600GT performs better than expected, although it does start to show its 'midrange' nature when you add in FSAA and AF, visible by the increased dips in the graph. Without enhancements, we have some very respectable frame rates with only major drops if a lot is happening right in front of you. Running that same level again with only 2xAA and 4xAF, and you find that the while general play isn't too bad, action sections are borderline; you won't want to increase the Anti-Alias settings further. However 2x/4x looks pretty damn good. In comparison with the X600XT ... well, familiar sight by now, but more noticeable in this test. The X600XT was pretty much unplayable without dropping either the resolution or the ingame graphics settings, something that seriously affected the gorgeous visuals. To get near to the same frame rates as the PC6600GT with the same ingame settings required running at 800x600 which makes a huge impact on the image quality in Far Cry
Image Quality
1024x768, No AA, No AF
6600GT left, X600XT right
A friend of mine once told me that "the water looks so good in Far Cry, I just want to pull up a chair and a beer, sit down and look at the waves", and as you can see from the screenshots, it does look good enough to do that! On the Albatron PC6600GT, the image quality in Far Cry benefits greatly from a little anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering. With most games likes this you are moving around a lot, and usually at a great enough speed that the surroundings having jagged edges isn't a major concern, but in Far Cry, the slower movement and the fact you often get a chance to look around you makes anti-aliasing very important.
1024x768, 2xAA, 4xAF
6600GT left, X600XT right
At 2x anti-aliasing you can still quite clearly see the jagged edges, especially against the water, however it is enough that while moving, it is far less noticeable than with out anti-aliasing.
1024x768, 4xAA, 4xAF
6600GT left, X600XT right
4x looks much better of course, but it is too much of a hit on performance without lowering the ingame visual settings. Anisotropic filtering is just as important in Far Cry due to the 'distance' factor and multiple angled objects involved in the scenery and again the image quality improves noticeably, check out the texturing on the rocks between the images.
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