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

OY! I just thought I'd join in on fun here after skimming through some of the posts. I'm a bit skeptical on my pc here.

Main Spec:
Pentium 4 @ 2.53ghz
512mb 2700mhz DDR
20GB hardrive (half windows partioned and the other for linux)
Radeon 9800 128mb non-pro




I tested it's strength on Far Cry's demo @ 800x600 with the rest of the video options at medium, it turned out that I would get moments in the game where the screen would stutter most of the time. This has me worried. I'm not sure if it could be either my videocard, ram or hardrive. Just in case if matters, my hardrive has about 2 gigs worth of free space with a total of 10 gigs for it's capacity. Anyone have any suggestions to help me out here?
 
Mine is Althonxp 2500+,1gmemory,80gb hd,nvidia fx5900,tell me my settings
 
Gunslinger said:
Just in case if matters, my hardrive has about 2 gigs worth of free space with a total of 10 gigs for it's capacity. Anyone have any suggestions to help me out here?
Click to expand...


What is WRONG with your harddrive? haha... j/k

but seriously... rest of ur system is quite nice... ur harddrive don't belong there man...

small drive space can cause slow downs.
and a 10 gig drive has a high chance of being 5400 RPM... dat should slow things as well. Get a new drive. if u can go for the SATA drives, do it, since i heard it has a noticeable performance increase from the ATA
 
iroctaipei said:
Mine is Althonxp 2500+,1gmemory,80gb hd,nvidia fx5900,tell me my settings
Click to expand...

We don't know yet, the game isn't released yet. Your guess is as good as anyones. And to people that have the beta, it's not an accurate example on how the game will perform once it's released. It's WAAY over a year old, almost two.
 
Is this "1.2 GHz Processor,256MB RAM,DirectX 7 graphics card" the minimum specification ??? This is not fair...

Valve stated earlier that the Hl2 can be ran even on 800mhz pc with 128 ram and dx6 based graphics card..This is really not fair.

what if they again change the minimum specification???? I am getting a feeling of being pissed.
 
Half-death said:
What is WRONG with your harddrive? haha... j/k

but seriously... rest of ur system is quite nice... ur harddrive don't belong there man...

small drive space can cause slow downs.
and a 10 gig drive has a high chance of being 5400 RPM... dat should slow things as well. Get a new drive. if u can go for the SATA drives, do it, since i heard it has a noticeable performance increase from the ATA
Click to expand...

This harddrive sucks, thats what! Well I ordered myself a Seagate 80gb 7200rpms...and the rest of the specs were good. HEh, man I knew it had to do with my harddrive, I just had a big feeling...like a crowbar in my stomach or something (Can't wait for half-life 2, or actually I can wait a little bit longer until my new hardrive comes in!) I also found out more about my video card *sniff*, it turns out I have a radeon 9800SE..GAAHHh!! :flame: I'm having this card returned and I'll exchange it (once I recieve my money back) for a 9800 non-pro. Right then and there I'm gonna get down to reading the overclocking method on how to boost it up to pro. :smoking:
 
Well, usually an company assembled pc comes with shitty graphics card. Unless you choose to put more money into the option. Good thing you got the new harddrive...

guys, I'm a bit confused here as well... since Half life 2 is running on directx... and radeon cards are better for that (talking about generations before the current one). So which is better for half life 2? radeon 9600 XT or Geforce fx 5900 XT...?
 
Half-death, I don't know personally which video card out of those two will win the title for being the the best card to use on half-life 2, but I can help you out on the comparison between them.

Here are the specs:

Radeon 9600 XT

DX: 9
SM: 2.0
Clock: 500MHz
Trans: 75M
Proc: 0.13u
PP: 4x1
Vertex: 250M
Bandwidth: 9.6GB


GeForce FX 5900 XT

DX : 9
SM : 2.0
Clock : 390MHz
Trans : 130M
Proc : 0.13u
Proc : 4x2
Vertex : 293M
Bandwidth : 22.4GB


And heres the source, http://www.pcvsconsole.com/features/video/ . I just thought I'd pick out the video cards you were looking for and post 'em up here to help you out. I'm not too sure what some of the abreviations in the specs mean myself.
 
Gunslinger said:
Half-death, I don't know personally which video card out of those two will win the title for being the the best card to use on half-life 2, but I can help you out on the comparison between them.

Here are the specs:

Radeon 9600 XT

DX: 9
SM: 2.0
Clock: 500MHz
Trans: 75M
Proc: 0.13u
PP: 4x1
Vertex: 250M
Bandwidth: 9.6GB


GeForce FX 5900 XT

DX : 9
SM : 2.0
Clock : 390MHz
Trans : 130M
Proc : 0.13u
Proc : 4x2
Vertex : 293M
Bandwidth : 22.4GB


And heres the source, http://www.pcvsconsole.com/features/video/ . I just thought I'd pick out the video cards you were looking for and post 'em up here to help you out. I'm not too sure what some of the abreviations in the specs mean myself.
Click to expand...
Hey I think the the ati card will own cuz hl2 is meant for ati=D
thanks for that link
 
I have a question concerning mobo's and graphic cards. I've got a 1,5year old Intel D845PESV with AGPx4. I also have a GeForce4mx440 and read on the internet that it needs AGPx8. Is this information untrue or can you run a AGPx8 card on an AGPx8 mobo (that would be strange I think). I'm asking because I wonder if my card would be able to run a Radeon9600XT.
 
stinger.aim92 said:
I have a question concerning mobo's and graphic cards. I've got a 1,5year old Intel D845PESV with AGPx4. I also have a GeForce4mx440 and read on the internet that it needs AGPx8. Is this information untrue or can you run a AGPx8 card on an AGPx8 mobo (that would be strange I think). I'm asking because I wonder if my card would be able to run a Radeon9600XT.
Click to expand...

They don't require an AGP 8x mobo, you can run them lower if you want/have to. Any card can run on your motherboard, but only at 4x speed instead of 8x. But don't worry, there's no noticeable difference between 8x and 4x.
 
stinger.aim92 said:
I have a question concerning mobo's and graphic cards. I've got a 1,5year old Intel D845PESV with AGPx4. I also have a GeForce4mx440 and read on the internet that it needs AGPx8. Is this information untrue or can you run a AGPx8 card on an AGPx8 mobo (that would be strange I think). I'm asking because I wonder if my card would be able to run a Radeon9600XT.
Click to expand...

You can run the video card in 4x. There is almost no performance difference at all between 4x and 8x.
 
sHm0zY said:
Hey I think the the ati card will own cuz hl2 is meant for ati=D
thanks for that link
Click to expand...

Hey no problem, I just thought I'd help out when its necessary. :cheers:
 
HL2 will run in my PC?

pentium 4 1.80Ghz
224mb RAM
videocard 32mb
DirectX 9
 
very very slight with a 32 mb card and not even 256 ram rjmc
 
I'm crossing my fingers for 1280*1024 high details with no AA or AF.

Athlon XP 2500+ @ 2.20 GHz
512mb 2700DDR
9800 pro with R360 core @ over XT specs.
 
you should be able to get those specs iamelephant. I know I will if you can, so that makes me feel good, lol.
 
Oh yeah I'm getting another 512mb stick in about a week :D Then all I need is a beefier CPU and I'm set.
 
Whats your mobo? Your best bet without replacing your mobo right now would be is the AXP 3000+ (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-103-381&depa=1) if your mobo only supports up to 333 mhx FSB with is what the 2500+ runs at. If it supports 400 mhz FSB id say the AXP 3200+ (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-103-390&depa=1). If your lookin to replace your saggy old mobo and get a real good processor for the 64 bit client of HL2 go with the A64 2800+ (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-103-452&depa=1) for cheap and the mobo (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-127-177&depa=1) for a good upgrade.
 
I have the following :

- P4 2.8 GHz with HyperThreading & 512 MB L2 cache
- MSI 865PE Neo2-FIS2R mobo
- 1GB DDR RAM, 1 stick 512MB/PC2700 (333MHz) & the other 512MB/PC2100 (266MHz)
- Hercules Radeon 9700 Pro (128 MB RAM)
- WD CaviarSE HD (120 GB, 8 MB buffer)
- SoundBlaster 5.1 Live
- Zalman 5.1 surround headphones & 5.1 amplifier
- 19" CRT monitor
- Windows XP Pro SP1a / DirectX9.0c / ATI Catalyst 4.7 drivers

I can run both Far Cry and Doom3 in 1024 x 768 with high detail, these 2 games are more demanding on system resources than Half-Life right? (if I compare the minimum specs for all 3 games). Older games like Rise of Nations, Max Payne 2 and Call Of Duty I can play with every detail cranked up max and 1280 x 1024 resolution.

Now I'm sure Half-Life 2 will run on my system. But can I also run it on 1280 x 1024 with the highest details? Half-Life 2 is definately THE most anticipated game for me ever, if I can't run it with all it's goodies turned on I will most likely upgrade.

Also, IF I need to upgrade something, what would it be? I think in the CPU department I'm fine. I think I'd prolly need either faster PC3200 RAM or a newer video card. But then I'm bound to my current mobo again. I prefer to wait if I can for PCIe and the next gen batch of video cards and then buy a complete new system (well at least mobo, CPU, RAM & video card) all at once.
 
Terminator - yeah, I've been considering going for a 64 bit mobo/CPU package. Would I notice a decent gain going from my Barton XP 2500 to a 2800 64 bit? How do the 64 bit CPUs overclock? Also, performance for my dollar, is it worth replacing my current 512mb PC2700 memory with 2x512mb PC3200, or just getting the other 2700 512mb stick?
 
http://www.aceshardware.com/read.jsp?id=60000270 theres the best a64 bench i could find quickly. The boost from a AXP 3200+ to a A64 3200+ is lie 10-20 fps depneding on the game. So Id say that going from AXP 2500+ to a A64 2800+ would prolly be close, if not bigger. Id say you might just wanna buy a stick of 512 pc3200, and buy another later if you dont have enough cash.
 
Actually, yeah buying a 3200 stick now and another later makes more sense :p

Cheers man.
 
hey, does anyone know how much room HL2 will take on the harddrive? Any idea how much CS:S will take? Even an guesstimate would be great. 10gigs? 2gigs? Thanks!
 
here's a clue: 4gig for Far Cry.
that's 20hours, HL2 is 36hours, im guessing we'll see more and so i'd guess it's bigger (space size)
 
Hi, I'm new here. I was wondering if you guys could tell me if my graphics card will be able to handle HL2 on high settings. Not too worried about my system..

Pentium 4 w/ hyper threading 3.02GHZ
1 gig DDR memory
160 gig SATA Hard drive
Soundblaster Live! 5.1 sound card
Now the weak part: NVIDIA GeForce 5200 FX 128MB video card

Will my video card be up to par for this game? I just got the computer and didn't read up enough on video cards before buying it to know that the Radeon 9800 was the one to get. :flame: Dangit. Oh well..any input? :D
 
The 5200 will run it OK since it will run in the DX8 mode. You may have to turn down the effects or resolution that you normally run games at.

If you want those DX9 effects and an awesome card for the next few years of HL2 +mods then grab a 9800pro for less than 200$.

If you aren't looking that far down the road but just want to play HL2 with good graphics then grab a 9600pro for just over 100$ online.
 
If I had that system I would definately get a better video card. That card is a major bottleneck.
 
how much would my amd athlon xp 2000+ (1.67ghz) CPU slow down my system with the 9600xt and 512mb ram? If i bought a 3000+ processor, would i see a great improvent in games?

Also, is it safe to say that if you can run farcry on XXX settings that you can run HL2 on similar settings? Becuase i get good framerates in farcry, and i like the detail and resolution i play on.

Thanks!
 
Manhacks - although the 2000 CPU isn't a major bottleneck, you would notice a decent improvement if you upgraded it. Games have recently been going through a period where they are extremely graphics heavy but not all that CPU intensive, but all that is now changing with complex shadow and physics calculations, particularly Far Cry, Doom 3 and more than likely Half Life 2.
 
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