ATTENTION: Read this before posting upgrade questions/'Will my PC run HL2?' questions

[blahblahblah]

Here is a mid range piece of crap....
AMD 2600+(Not bad)
512 MB RAM PC3200(Not Bad)
80GB 100ATA? 7200RPM(Not to bad)
GeForce MX 440 64MB RAM(Worthless piece of shiet)

Just buy a new graphics card to experience HL2 at its best. A 9600 Pro costs 100 USD, 9600XT 140 USD, 9800 Pro 200 USD.

Performance tip, downclock your RAM to DDR333. You will gain about 5 to 10 percent in performance in everything. This is because Athlon XP's like to have memory synchronization with their FSB. That means setting your memory to 166 MHz (or 333 MHz DDR). You can even try it out. Run a couple of gaming benchmarks before and after the change.

 

[Zabrak]

How about my rig a couple of posts back?

 

[Frank]

Here is a mid range piece of crap....
AMD 2600+(Not bad)
512 MB RAM PC3200(Not Bad)
80GB 100ATA? 7200RPM(Not to bad)
GeForce MX 440 64MB RAM(Worthless piece of shiet)

That ain't no piece of crap...your videocard it, but the rest is good!

BTW:

AMD 2800+
512 DDR RAM
Radeon 9800 PRO 128MB
80 GB



I guess I'll do fine...

 

[Frank]

How about my rig a couple of posts back?

You need more ram and a better videocard...

But instead of buying that, get a new computer... Get one with NO software at all and get XP from a friend or something...

 

[meppe]

How will my computer do with hl2?

AMD athlon XP 2000+
1 GB ram
Radeon 9600 SE

and what should i upgrade if necessary?

 

[Zabrak]

You need more ram and a better videocard...

But instead of buying that, get a new computer... Get one with NO software at all and get XP from a friend or something...

Thanks, but I don't have the budget for that, like I said. I was wondering what performance I would get from the upgrade I could afford. Maybe someone who knows or has played CS:S could enlighten me a bit.

 

[Frank]

Thanks, but I don't have the budget for that, like I said. I was wondering what performance I would get from the upgrade I could afford. Maybe someone who knows or has played CS:S could enlighten me a bit.

There was a guy in the HL2 forum who had a computer a bit like yours (more ram I suppose and a newer videocard) and he got about 25-30 fps in CS:S when playing inside a house or a tunnel or whatever. But when he got outside in the open his fps dropped quite a bit. I think it was about 15-20 or something... Well, what you COULD do, would be to upgrade your videocard. You can get a Radeon 9800 PRO for 200$ now, I suppose... it's rather expensive, but it would do you some good. And then I would suggest some more ram. Just 256 more and you're set to go on medium details 1024x768 or there about...
Don't shoot me if I'm wrong when it gets released, but that is what I would do. OR I would hurry up and gather as much money as possible and get a new computer!

Good luck, chump!

 

[Zabrak]

Thanks for the advice.

 

[drahcir]

will an old monitor affect me playing hl2 even if i have a 9800 pro?

 

[hero]

little skeptical about how well hl2 will run on my system cause i get like a 25-15 fps in css with pretty with low settings and a resolution of 1024 by 768.

its a dell 4300 bought in 2002
2 80 gig hd
512 MB RAM
2.7 pent 4
geforce2 mx 400

what should i upgrade to get a 40-60 fps range in css with like medium settings?
i've got about 250 $dollas$ in my pocket. what shall i buy?

please help a brotha out

 

[Asus]

How will my computer do with hl2?

AMD athlon XP 2000+
1 GB ram
Radeon 9600 SE

and what should i upgrade if necessary?

You'll make it. If anything the 9600SE could be replaced with a 9600Pro or 9800Pro for 100-200$ online. Your 1GB of memory will be good.

little skeptical about how well hl2 will run on my system cause i get like a 25-15 fps in css with pretty with low settings and a resolution of 1024 by 768.

its a dell 4300 bought in 2002
2 80 gig hd
512 MB RAM
2.7 pent 4
geforce2 mx 400

what should i upgrade to get a 40-60 fps range in css with like medium settings?
i've got about 250 $dollas$ in my pocket. what shall i buy?

please help a brotha out

About the same thing. A 9600Pro to get you by for 100$ or a real solid performer like the 9800Pro for 200$ from online.
The 9800Pro 128MB (256Bit) is about the best buy you can get below 200$.

 

[Frank]

will an old monitor affect me playing hl2 even if i have a 9800 pro?

Depends on the size... if you have a 15" then you won't be able to play it in 1280x1024...

 

[hockles]

Will my computer run Half-Life 2?? (EXTREMELY BAD, BAD, AVERAGE, GOOD, GREAT <---haha as if)

Intel Celeron 1.70 GHz
1.00 GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce MX 440 128 MB

I don't really play many new games lately (which would push my PC to do some real work - as i've been studying for my HSC) and I have yet to own CS:S so i don't know if my computer needs upgrading ---> if so i don't really want to spend too much. Can't wait to have Half-Life 2 in my hands.

 

[Asus]

It should run alright. Not the best but you will get by. If you had 100$ to spend then I probably would buy a 9600Pro online.

 

[hehku]

Hello. This is my first post here, so please be gentle..

I could buy this set for 150 euros (that's about $ 190) :

AMD Athlon XP 2400+ (about 2 Ghz)
512 mb 333 mhz DDR
GeForce 2, 32 mb
DVD-ROM

To that I'm going to add a new video card, cd-rw and a hard disk and it would make something like $ 600.

I'd like to know what is your opinion:
-would that be wise or should I put that $ 600 to a new computer?
-what video card would be good enough, but not too good for that set? (I've tought about 9600 pro, 9600 xt or 9800 pro, but feel free to recommend anything else, also!)
-how much the memory mhz (333, not 400) affects the whole performance of the computer?
-could I play HL2 with high settings?


Maybe I should just wait till HL2 comes out and watch the benchmarks.

Thank you for any replies and information!

 

[Subatomic]

Buy it, and get a 9800 Pro, and a harddrive, and you are good to go! (assuming you have a case)

The speed of your RAM will not really effect performance. 333 and 400 do not have alot of difference, unless you are overclocking.

Yep, high settings with that.

 

[hehku]

Ok, thank you for your reply, sounds great!

I knew something about computers back then when we used DOS, but quitted for a while when Windows came in.. so I'm totally lost with these things nowadays.

When recommended processor speed for HL2 is 2,4 ghz, should I look the 2400+ -value or the cpu mhz, which is something like 2000. Which one counts with AMD's?

And someone said, that the processor cache size isn't that good in this computer, when it is only 256. How much does that affect?

 

[Subatomic]

You are fine with the 2400+. The old XP's are rated similarly to the MHz in P4Bs. So...

An Athlon XP 2400+ ~= Pentium 4B 2.4GHz

 

[hockles]

Does anyone a good place (Australia) i can purchase a Raedon 9600 Pro or a 9800 Pro and their prices??

 

[-=XD=-]

erm what about Video, what video card sould be used, i have a 7500 64mb

 

[michi216]

enough for the full experience?

hi everybody

i am usually not playing ego shooters and other games which need much hardware, so i have few experience with fps and this kind of stuff
but what i have read about hl2 is really breathtaking, so i must give it a try

my system:
athlon xp 2000+
384 mb ram

i will probably buy a radeon 9800 pro (then there will be no money left to upgrade ram for examle)

my question: will i get the full hl2-experience? will i be able to play at 1024*768 medium?
how big is the difference between low - medium - high you are always talking about?

 

[hockles]

hi i'm pretty new here, just wondering if my computer will run half-life 2 and how well. I have:

Intel Celeron 1.70GHz
1.00GB of RAM
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX440 128MB
17" Samsung Monitor

 

[blahblahblah]

hi everybody

i am usually not playing ego shooters and other games which need much hardware, so i have few experience with fps and this kind of stuff
but what i have read about hl2 is really breathtaking, so i must give it a try

my system:
athlon xp 2000+
384 mb ram

i will probably buy a radeon 9800 pro (then there will be no money left to upgrade ram for examle)

my question: will i get the full hl2-experience? will i be able to play at 1024*768 medium?
how big is the difference between low - medium - high you are always talking about?

If you are not into FPS that much, I would recommend either a ATI 9600 Pro (110 USD) or a ATI 9600 XT (140 USD). Either of those video cards will give you more than enough power to play HL2 at great visual settings. I would then recommend spending the rest of your money on some RAM. Even bringing your total amount of RAM just to 512 would be great.

The 9600XT is roughly 10 percent faster than the 9600 Pro.

hi i'm pretty new here, just wondering if my computer will run half-life 2 and how well. I have:

Intel Celeron 1.70GHz
1.00GB of RAM
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX440 128MB
17" Samsung Monitor

It will run HL2. Don't expect any eye candy though. That means no reflective water, detailed textures and other cool things. Most importantly, your computer will run HL2 if you decide not to upgrade your computer.

If you are looking to upgrade, I would first recommend upgrading your video card. For a cheap upgrade, you can buy an ATI 9600 Pro for 110 USD which will run HL2 pretty close to maximum settings. For 210 USD, you can buy a 9800 Pro which will give you more power to run HL2 and other games in the future.

If you still have money, I would then suggest upgrade your processor to a P4 (because Celeron's have terrible performance). Even if you upgraded your processor to a 1.7 P4, that will still be dramatically faster than your celeron.

 

[michi216]

whats the problem when i have only 384 ram? will there only be more loading time (no big problem for me) or will quality of textures decrease or will the game run less smoothly?

thx for your answers!

 

[sixteenth]

I'm OCing my 2.4 to a 2.66 so I should be fine, I am also gettin a 6800 GT... have 1024 of ram, Audigy 2 Plat., and water coolin. I only have to worry about my 300 Watt crappy PSU, and no I do not have a Dell in which they put those crappy PSU's in.


<500 ram will kill you. It does not allow many operations at once to operate at a quick enough speed. You will be able to see graphically, but these graphics will move slowely crappily... ram basically give you more room for smoothness. Also HL2 is big CPU and RAM, and not as bi on your graphics card.

 

[blahblahblah]

whats the problem when i have only 384 ram? will there only be more loading time (no big problem for me) or will quality of textures decrease or will the game run less smoothly?

thx for your answers!

Aside from general windows XP performance improvements, more RAM can help many parts of gaming

- It will help the loading of levels go by dramatically faster
- framerate increases at higher detail settings
- less stuttering between each mini-loading area (once you enter a level)
- Much faster to exit games. Windows doesn't spend 5-10 minutes thrashing around after leaving a game.

You will not notice a massive performance increase with more RAM, but it will make your gaming experience a better one.

I'm OCing my 2.4 to a 2.66 so I should be fine, I am also gettin a 6800 GT... have 1024 of ram, Audigy 2 Plat., and water coolin. I only have to worry about my 300 Watt crappy PSU, and no I do not have a Dell in which they put those crappy PSU's in.

I would highly recommend upgrading your power supply. Even a bump to 350 Watts would be okay. If possible, try and find a 400 Watt power supply or higher. Just to give you that little extra comfort room.

 

[SimonomiS]

Right, so what about me:

AMD Athlon XP2200+, MMX, 3DNow, 1.8GHz
736Mb RAM
DirectX 9

Nvidia Geforce4 MX 440-SE 64Mb

Im a complete and utter PC Hardware noob, my dad does it all. On CS:S, with all settings at max I get 10-15fps on my own, not gonna try it out on servers. But with all settings on their lowest i can play on servers at around 30-60fps (jumps a bit at times), but im wondering, for HL2, i might be able to live with a bit of slowdown for the eye candy.

And if I was able to convince my dad to buy something relatively cheap to upgrade, (Key Word: CHEAP, no Radeon x800s) what should i ask for? I think its either the Gfx card, or the processor which should be upgraded first.

 

[Asus]

Graphics card.
9600 Pro from Online for about 100$ USD.
They won't have that good of a card at that price in stores.

 

[Kalath]

Yeah, um, I wonder if I could run HL2.

I got:

Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80GHz
256MB RAM (Buying 512 soon [512 + 256])
nVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 126MB (Yes, it's supported with DirectX 9)

Can I still play fairly smoothly? Can I still play with the lowest settings? Please post your opinions, and what I need to upgrade.

 

[Subatomic]

Yep, you will be fine! Low-medium settings.

 

[Kalath]

God, yes.
Was 'fraid me ol' computer wouldn't be able to handle it.
Ah well, thank you.

 

[wayne white]

anyone know if the game can be run on a window?

 

[germancommando]

I know my computer can handle HL2. But what do you think I should set my settings too? Like what do you think the maximum settings my computer can handle?

Computer Specs:
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 2.8GHz
MOBO: Gigabyte 8PE800L
RAM: 1024MB PC2700 DDR
VID: ATI Radeon 9500, Evil Commando X, 128MB
HD: Maxtor 120GB, 7200RPM

 

[bryanf445]

medium at least, youll be able to try high but noone has played the game yet to tell you exactly

 

[Shamrock]

Medium.. And bryan buy a new mobo.. NOW!

 

[bryanf445]

yes sir

 

[Shamrock]

Go buy me a hot dog.. I am hungry.. Plus, buy me some RAM while you are out there.

 

[HUGEkebab]

hi hows my comp going to do?

athlon 2700+
1024 mb pc2700 crucial ram
asus a7n8x deluxe
radeon 128mb 9800 pro ultimate edition
2 x 80 gig samsung spinpoints in raid 0 configuration

could anyone give me a round about figure on what average fps i may expect on this rig.

 

[Shamrock]

80-100 fps

 

[HUGEkebab]

wow thanks! i really didnt think id be getting frames that good. im well pleased about that. only thing is im guessing u are giving me frames for running at 1024 768 but i am running at 1280 1024 so im guessing they will be lower cus of this?

now all i have to do is wait 13 days

btw i bet u kerry gets in. exit polls look good in ohio for kerry. :cheers: