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

[SpUnKy-BoB]

Thank you. Err what Card should i get thats not to expensive. Im an Nvidia fan so whats a good card or should i get a Radian(or however its spelt). And also do u know a rough price of the Abit IS7-G (I like it) and with a 10/100/1000 onbord LAN card thats cool.:naughty:



Thanks again.

 

[TheOtherDude]

Originally posted by SpUnKy-BoB
Err what Card should i get thats not to expensive.

Define "not to expensive." You could get a 9600XT for about $200USD. When you factor in the bundled Half-Life 2 that doesn't seem so expensive.

 

[Rommis]

Originally posted by CokeLite
Whatsup.

I am currently using...

-2.4 Ghz P4
-512MB RAM
-5200FX Geforce 128MB (WEAK LINK)

...Am I good at highest??

Your graphics card is way to slow for that. Even my old Geforce3 Ti500 is much faster than the FX5200. You should buy yourself at least the Radeon 9200 or faster. To get full DirectX9 quality you must have Radeon 9500 Pro or faster. Forget the Nvidia cards. At this moment they cannot produce DirectX9 graphics fast enough.

 

[RoyaleWithCheese]

Lol somebody has woken up a dead thread here...


No offense, but I think CokeLite wasn't expecting an answer to his 19-10-2003 posted question anymore

 

[Rommis]

Originally posted by DeusEx2
Lol somebody has woken up a dead thread here...


No offense, but I think CokeLite wasn't expecting an answer to his 19-10-2003 posted question anymore

How can you know what he expects? Why should this thread be dead?

 

[Meteor_of_War]

This thread's most likely still in his subscribed threads, and i think most people check their subscribed threads. He'll see it next time he visits the forum.

 

[Its_Pat]

Hello,
I'm thinking of buying a new Dell computer. I wanna be really ready for HL2 and DOOM3. This is one I can afford (only just over $1000!):

P4 Processor at 2.66GHz with 533MHz front side bus
1GB Dual Channel DDR SDRAM at 333MHz
128MB DDR ATI RADEON 9800 PRO
Sound Blaster Live! 5.1

My questions are:

1) Dell also offers a P4 2.8 Processor with 800MHz front side bus. This is much more money. Is there a noticable difference?

2) I prefer just 2 speakers and a subwoofer at my desk, so will a simple Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 be good enough - or are there other big advantages in getting a Sound Blaster_ Audigy 2?

3)Are optical mouses better for HL2-type gaming?

Thank you in advance.

It's_Pat

 

[Meteor_of_War]

Originally posted by Its_Pat

My questions are:

1) Dell also offers a P4 2.8 Processor with 800MHz front side bus. This is much more money. Is there a noticable difference?

2) I prefer just 2 speakers and a subwoofer at my desk, so will a simple Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 be good enough - or are there other big advantages in getting a Sound Blaster_ Audigy 2?

3)Are optical mouses better for HL2-type gaming?

Thank you in advance.

It's_Pat

As for the P4 2.6 vs. the P4 2.8, i'm not too experienced with Intel CPUs, but i think you'll definitely see a "noticable" difference but both processors should be fine.

And i have a Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 card with 2 speakers and a sub woofer and i think it's good enough, but i've never heard the Audigy cards in action so i dont know first hand what the differences are.

As for what mouse you game with, most people will tell you optical mice are better for 3d gaming but i've used a ball mouse for years without any complaints. You do have to clean them once in a while though to get out the dirt and dust that will build up inside which is a problem you wont have with an optical mouse.

 

[5m0k3]

I wanted to know if with my 2.8 ghz 533mhz pentium 4, 512 pc2700 DDR ram, Ati Radeon 9700 All In Wonder Pro, PC Can run Half life 2. Thats not all, I know damn well i can run this game. But, I want to know if I am going to get to have ALL of the features that come with this game. In a previous thread I read that some video cards can get cut out of having some of the more finer feature of hl2. Such as, Reflections off of water... all the good stuff. I'm not a comp n00b and I just want to know if I can run hl2 with the same features on a radeon 9800 xt. I know i will have lower FPS of course.... But I just want to know if I will get all of the same display features with an OK ammount of FPS. Enough to not see a real big difference in gameplay compared to a 98XT. If there is a specific number of FPS that you know (which I highly doubt) please tell it. Thanks alot, I will check this forum tonight.
Sorry Igneri, I didnt mean to make another thread on my "?"

 

[Sgt.Igneri]

Yes, you will be able to have every last detail that HL2 will include.

With no AA or AF, you should probably be expecting around 50 to 60 FPS.

 

[The Terminator]

Um, Im getting a 9600 for christmas and wanna know my current power supply can handle it. Is there anyway to tell and what should I upgrade it to.

 

[Nameless]

My system:
Athlon XP 1800+(1.53 GHz, no OC)
512 MB RAM
Radeon 9600 XT(no OC)
Integrated nVidia nForce(has sound problems with certain games)

I think the weak link in my PC is the processor. I want to run HL2 at least around 30 FPS, so will I have to lower any details? Also, this is a 1 1/2 year-old Compaq which has only been upgraded with the 9600 XT. And no, I didn't pay for it or the 9600 XT. I DO have around $730 to spend on upgrades if I want, which is about enough for an Athlon 64 FX-51, I think, though that'll leave me broke!

 

[ThePuppetMaster]

Um, Im getting a 9600 for christmas and wanna know my current power supply can handle it. Is there anyway to tell and what should I upgrade it to.

I think ATI recommends at least a 350W power supply because the card connects directly to your power supply .

 

[Doc Brass]

Okay guys, thanks in advance for the suggestions. After reading through all of these pages, I've yet to see anyone who has exactly my question so I thought I'd ask.

I've got a P4 1.4, GF ti4200 128 and a 4X AGP board. All my other stuff is powerfull enough IMO, so I won't bother spouting it all. My question is would a graphics card upgrade be a good idea with my current processor and motherboard or should I wait and upgrade that stuff before the graphics card. I'd like to get a 9800pro but I don't want the 1.4 to be a bottleneck on performance, even though I would have a blazing vid card. I'm only looking to play at 1024x768 or there about so would this even be an issue do you think?

I realize that my 4200 is a DX8.1 card and would really like to reap the benefits of a DX9 card, what with how much these new games will utilize it. I don't want to end up with graphics that are really sharp and perfect, yet my gameplay is slow because of the physics calculations pulling my processor down.

Again, thanks for the suggestions and I hope this all makes sense.

 

[TheOtherDude]

Okay guys, thanks in advance for the suggestions. After reading through all of these pages, I've yet to see anyone who has exactly my question so I thought I'd ask.

I've got a P4 1.4, GF ti4200 128 and a 4X AGP board. All my other stuff is powerfull enough IMO, so I won't bother spouting it all. My question is would a graphics card upgrade be a good idea with my current processor and motherboard or should I wait and upgrade that stuff before the graphics card. I'd like to get a 9800pro but I don't want the 1.4 to be a bottleneck on performance, even though I would have a blazing vid card. I'm only looking to play at 1024x768 or there about so would this even be an issue do you think?

I realize that my 4200 is a DX8.1 card and would really like to reap the benefits of a DX9 card, what with how much these new games will utilize it. I don't want to end up with graphics that are really sharp and perfect, yet my gameplay is slow because of the physics calculations pulling my processor down.

Again, thanks for the suggestions and I hope this all makes sense.

If your only looking to play at the LQ settings you suggest, then a video card upgrade seems like overkill. If you want a DX9 card that can play the games and the settings you seem to want, I would suggest the 9600XT. A 9800 would really be more than you need unless you (1) wanted to play at higher resolutions and/or with Anti-Alaising and/or Ansiostropic filtering or (2) you wanted the card to last you 3+ years.

 

[Jhahn2k4]

Would 1 GIG of ram help out much with a 3 GHZ, Radeon 9600Pro? What I mean by that is, would it be noticable?

 

[TheOtherDude]

Would 1 GIG of ram help out much with a 3 GHZ, Radeon 9600Pro? What I mean by that is, would it be noticable?

Up from 512 MB? Yes, it will be noticable. Most games will load significantly faster, and the slowdown that happens in some games when you run out of memory and have to use the page file will happen much less (if at all).

 

[jonnyapps]

got a k7n2delta for xmas - seen a nice tower case for only £20 in january sales. Now i plan to get a athlon 2600+barton and 512mb of 3200 ram in two 256 dimms cos the mobo doubles up their speed like that??? also i already have a 9600xt. Where, with this suggested rig, do you think my graphics settings will be with HL2?
Thnx

Oh yeah and what's the diff between OEM and RETAIL?

 

[Jhahn2k4]

Up from 512 MB? Yes, it will be noticable. Most games will load significantly faster, and the slowdown that happens in some games when you run out of memory and have to use the page file will happen much less (if at all).

Thanx for the info :cheese:

:thumbs:

 

[Dra]

Oh yeah and what's the diff between OEM and RETAIL?

With OEM packaging, i think you just get the product itself, nothing extra. (i.e no heatsink w/ fan in OEM CPU packages) i also think that you don't get any warranty with OEM.

my computer:
Windows XP
Pentium 4 1.7Ghz
512mb SDRAM (PC133)
Radeon 9600np 128 mb

will i be able to run HL2 within comfortable FPS (30-40) with medium to low settings?

 

[ThePuppetMaster]

No one can really tell you. No one knows until the final game comes out. But I doubt it will scruggle on your pc although your ram is SDRAM which is the worst ram out there. I think its extinct . I say low settings jsut because of your ram but we'll just have to wait and see.

 

[[MLB]Loser]

Check out the system specs in my sig. This is the new PC that I'll be building very shortly. I keep seeing the minimum recommendation being a 2.0 GHz CPU. The 3200+ Athlon64 is clocked at 2.0 GHz on the nose. My question is not whether I'll be able to run the game, that seems fairly obvious, my question is, will I be able to play the game the way it was meant to be played?

Edit: The case includes a Thermaltake 420W power supply. Most people using similiar rigs talk of having no issues with overheating.

 

[[MLB]Loser]

With OEM packaging, i think you just get the product itself, nothing extra. (i.e no heatsink w/ fan in OEM CPU packages) i also think that you don't get any warranty with OEM.

In the case of most CPU's you get a 30-day warranty with OEM and a heatsink, etc. In the retail version you get the box, the manuals, the heatsink/fan, and a 3-year warranty.

 

[ThePuppetMaster]

Check out the system specs in my sig. This is the new PC that I'll be building very shortly. I keep seeing the minimum recommendation being a 2.0 GHz CPU. The 3200+ Athlon64 is clocked at 2.0 GHz on the nose. My question is not whether I'll be able to run the game, that seems fairly obvious, my question is, will I be able to play the game the way it was meant to be played?

Edit: The case includes a Thermaltake 420W power supply. Most people using similiar rigs talk of having no issues with overheating.

Just cause the 3200A64 is logically 2Ghz doesnt mean thats the minimun for an athlon. It will run like a dream. Im getting the a64 also. TRUST me. There has to be a requirement for athlons somewhere. The athlon64 3200 is considered to be APPROX. the same as P4 3.0Ghz.

You and I will run the game the way its meant to be played.

 

[[MLB]Loser]

Just cause the 3200A64 is logically 2Ghz doesnt mean thats the minimun for an athlon. It will run like a dream. Im getting the a64 also. TRUST me. There has to be a requirement for athlons somewhere. The athlon64 3200 is considered to be APPROX. the same as P4 3.0Ghz.

You and I will run the game the way its meant to be played.

Schweet! I had heard things simliar to that about it being equal to or better than some of the 3.0+ Ghz P4's, but hadn't seen any real benchmarks.

 

[gh0st]

if you look at tomshardware.com (which is notoriously intel slanted) or check out this review on anand: http://www.anandtech.com/cpu/showdoc.html?i=1946&p=5, its pretty obvious that the 3200+ just about dominates intels upper class, and especially considering the price its a great deal (which is why i'm getting one too)

and, of course your also solid for a 64bit future, and the next release of windows & longhorn

 

[[MLB]Loser]

if you look at tomshardware.com (which is notoriously intel slanted) or check out this review on anand: http://www.anandtech.com/cpu/showdoc.html?i=1946&p=5, its pretty obvious that the 3200+ just about dominates intels upper class, and especially considering the price its a great deal (which is why i'm getting one too)

and, of course your also solid for a 64bit future, and the next release of windows & longhorn

It cracks me up how they make some of these benchmarks sound like there's such a huge noticeable difference in performance. I was watching an episode of the screensavers today and they had BF: 1942 running on a 64 3200+ & a 3400+, there was no discernable difference I could see. The guy that was doing the demonstration said in most cases, the human eye would need a difference of more than 10% in performance in order to notice it. So my question is, does a 7% performance increase between the 3200 and the 3400 really justify an additional $150-$175 dollars?

 

[gh0st]

no (dot dot dot)

 

[AzzMan]

I have AMD Athlon2400+
512MB PC2700 RAM
Radeon 9800 pro

Im probably going to upgrade to 1024MB PC3200 ram and an Athlon 3000/3200 and get an SB Audigy 2 in the next couple months

I say "Bring on teh Half-Life 2!"

 

[eXistenZ]

I was just wondering for anyone that knows, whether my computer will run the game well enough to enjoy the new technologies....


WinXP PRO
Dual P3 1ghz (2ghz)
512 sdram
Gforce FX 5600 -256 sdram

Do these specs seem worthy or HL2 play...or shall I need to upgrade a piece here. It seems my only bottle neck is the processor; that is if it doesn't plan on utilizing dual processors. I read the articles, and it mentioned some tech-speak about threading, and a bit on such things, but I didn't get a precise answer on whether it will utilize Dual Processors. Will it?

Do you think I should upgrad to 1gig of ram before play?

Do you think I should sell my puter, and get a new rig with a price tag around $1,500??? (minus monitor and input devices)..???

Thanks all..I need to play this game.

--my computer runs Battlefield 1942 pretty well (most everthing turned up, res of 800*600), as well as Call of Duty(all specs cranked max, res 1024*768), SOF, and other such games...is my rig worthy???

 

[Murray_H]

Will a 300W PSU be sufficient to support a XP 2800, a 9800 pro, a CDRW, DVD-ROM and a 120 gig HDD?

 

[Maxi]

No, iirc you need atleast a 350w psu for a 9800, since it needs its own powercable.

 

[Johan_Tayn]

AMD64 3000+(bought base-line so I could upgrade to 3400+[+] later and get a boost)
Asus K8V Deluxe(ahhhhh...)
550 watt PSU
160 Western Digital 7200RPM 8MB cache(currently borken[and I mean borken])
GeForce FX 5200 128 225/330 Actual Speed(waiting for next-gen cards so I can get a 9800 | 9600 gen)
Plextor Premium 52x32x52x(w/ Gigarec)
Plextor 16x DVD(I want the DVD version of HL2!)
Logitech Z-560 400-watt THX 4.1 system
Logitech Wireless MX-700 Mouse
Generic Wireless Logitech KB(eh, who cares?)
512 MB PC3200 KingstonValUeRam(wondering if I could get faster... could I get PC5500 w/K8V + 3000+?)
Sony 17.1 Widescreen(here's hoping HL2 supports 1280x768..)

I was wondering.. Could I upgrade my memory?

 

[[MLB]Loser]

<snip>
512 MB PC3200 KingstonValUeRam(wondering if I could get faster... could I get PC5500 w/K8V + 3000+?)
I was wondering.. Could I upgrade my memory?

No, the motherboard, according to the Asus website, supports a max of PC3200/DDR400. I haven't seen anyone having any luck using anything faster. I got Corsair XMS PC3200LL for $280 for 1 GB. CAS latency is 2. Its fast as hell.

 

[reap]

No, iirc you need atleast a 350w psu for a 9800, since it needs its own powercable.

I thought that it needs 300W power supply?
This is from the ATI's website:

"RADEON™ 9800 Series of products requires connection to your PC's internal power supply for operation. Consult your system builder or OEM to ensure your system has an adequate power supply. Otherwise, ATI recommends a 300-Watt power supply or greater to ensure normal system operation where a number of other internal devices are installed."

But does this "normal" mean gaming? Or does the gaming need greater Power supply?

 

[Murray_H]

I've gone for a bigger case now with a decent 360W PSU, hopefully that should feed the card

 

[<RJMC>]

my computer
1.8 ghz
32 mb videocard
256mb sistem memory
no 3d acelerator
directx 9
how you think will run HL2?

myself dont think will run so slowly
cuz if the minimun are
800 mhz, I hav 1.8ghz the double
and I hope recomended means recomended to run fast and not recomended to run whiout problems
also....the source is not designed to low requirements?
cuz I heard that valve make the source whit litle requiriments cuz not everibody hav ultimatun tecnological computers
also I heard that source run very well in very poor potence computers

 

[ComradeBadger]

What is your graphics card, thats what it hinges around..

 

[ThePuppetMaster]

my computer
1.8 ghz
32 mb videocard
256mb sistem memory
no 3d acelerator
directx 9
how you think will run HL2?

myself dont think will run so slowly
cuz if the minimun are
800 mhz, I hav 1.8ghz the double
and I hope recomended means recomended to run fast and not recomended to run whiout problems
also....the source is not designed to low requirements?
cuz I heard that valve make the source whit litle requiriments cuz not everibody hav ultimatun tecnological computers
also I heard that source run very well in very poor potence computers

with full direct9x features, it will run like shit. With everything off, it'll run alright. I dont even think u have the minumum requirement for graphics card. If its onboard, ur ****ed.

 

[<RJMC>]

you ask what is my graphic card?
come whit the computer
is a S3
chip type: ProSavage DDR
BIOS version: 78.30.00.07
memory sistem: 256 Mb
video memory: 32 Mb