Half life 2 is no doubt the most anticipated pc game of all times.

Characters - Advanced facial animation system delivers the most sophisticated in-game characters ever seen. With 40 distinct facial "muscles," human characters convey the full array of human emotion, and respond to the player with fluidity and intelligence.

Physics - From pebbles to water to 2-ton trucks respond as expected, as they obey the laws of mass, friction, gravity, and buoyancy.

Graphics - Source's shader-based renderer, like the one used at Pixar to create movies such as Toy Story® and Monster's, Inc.®, creates the most beautiful and realistic environments ever seen in a video game.

AI - Neither friends nor enemies charge blindly into the fray. They can assess threats, navigate tricky terrain, and fashion weapons from whatever is at hand.

To measure performance we used the Video Stress Test(VST) that is available in the CounterStrike:Source beta available through Steam. We set all the details to the highest level and each time changed the resolution from 800x600 up to 1600x1200.

Since the game is very CPU dependent, it is better to ignore results taken at resolutions of 800x600 and 1024x768. The true value of a VGA card is best seen at higher resolutions with HL2. That is, at 1280x1024 and at 1600x1200. It is interesting that the 7800 GT card produced similar performance to the 7800 GTX.

With 4xAA and 8xAF turned on, the dust settles and it is clear who's the best. 128fps at a resolution of 1600X1200, is quite impressive from the 7800 GTX, while 138fps at 1280x1024 is also quite good.