Half-Life 2 Image Quality

The fence test in Half-Life 2 is one of the best we have because it is very easy to spot the differences in anti-aliasing techniques. We’ll focus specifically on the fence itself and the tree in the distance, with the near tree playing a supporting role.

HL2 0xAA 16xAF

Radeon card 0xAA/16xAF

GeForce 7900 GTX 0xAA/16xAF

Though moderate, the advantage clearly goes to NVIDIA in this comparison. It draws more of the chain-link fence, especially on the left side, and the skinny branch on the far side of the close tree is more visible. The far tree is also a good indicator, especially if you can display the images side-by-side or save them on your desktop and flip through them.

HL2 4xAA 16xAF

Radeon card 4xAA/16xAF

GeForce 7900 GTX 4xAA/16xAF

In both cases we see essentially the same results as before, except the margin is slimmer though still in NVIDIA’s favor. The upcoming ATI card does a better job than the GeForce now around the middle of the fence, though the far left and the trees still go in NVIDIA’s favor.

HL2 4xAA 16xAF Transparency/Adaptive

Radeon card 4xAA/16xAF with adaptive AA

GeForce 7900 GTX 4xAA/16xAF with transparency AA

NVIDIA’s GeForce 7900 GTX takes the lead here as Transparency AA clearly does a better job in this scene. The fence is clearer and more robust, the major advantage is in drawing the far tree. The close tree also shows considerably more of the skinny branches, especially on the right-hand side.

HL2 ATI 6xAA 16xAF Adaptive AA

Radeon card 6xAA/16xAF with adaptive AA

This is a tough one. On the one hand, ATI’s fence is remarkably smooth and free of missing pixels or jaggies. On the other, it is even more faded now. Overall though, advantage ATI on the fence. When it comes to the trees, despite the move to 6xAA, the ATI product still cannot render as many of the thin branches as the 7900GTX. What is show, individually, tends to look better on a branch-by-branch basis, but the extra fullness of the tree in the GeForce pictures is tempting. We’re going to mark this test as a wash. It’s not that either card is better, but we expect personal preferences regarding the trees and fence are going to be especially important.