What makes some new games with great graphics so fast?

[daemonicky]

I don't have very fast computer. I am playing this game http://www.mobygames.com/game/singularity/ and it has very good graphics. Half Life 2 has similarly great graphics. Some other games have not so good looking graphics and have smaller fps.

IIRC in HL2 commentaries they said, that they do textures somehow by shaders. I don't know if they generate them proceduraly or use some sort of LOD.

How is such great graphics with good speed achieved?

[Ranger366]

Singularity uses the Unreal Engine 3.
A well coded engine... it's very fast indeed.