512MB Memory Scaling (cont'd)

Half-Life 2

Call of Duty 2

In Half-Life 2 with 4xAA/16xAF, the additional memory found on the GeForce 7800 GTX 512MB improved performance by 2% at 1280x1024 and 1600x1200, and 7% at 2048x1536. Meanwhile, in Call of Duty 2, the results were even better, we saw a 9% improvement at 1600x1200 and 2048x1536.

Based on our CoD 2 results last week with the X800 XL 512MB, we expected even higher figures for the GeForce 7800 GTX 512MB in Call of Duty 2. Since that test we’ve changed the testbed configuration and just as importantly, enabled the “Optimize for SLI” setting in the CoD 2 graphics menu. Since publishing our first round of CoD 2 test results, we’ve found that this setting boosts performance for non-SLI configurations and have been using it ever since, including the results above. That likely accounts for part of the difference.