for those upgrading for halflife2..

[poseyjmac]

some of you might think if you just get the best video card on the market, hl2 will run fast period. well it depends on your cpu, if you have a low end cpu. you wont get the peformance ur looking for, your 9800 pro wont be breaking a sweat simply because your cpu cant keep up. so whatll happen is every resolution will be pretty much the same framerate regardless of detail settings and it wont be a very good fps because the video card needs a fast backbone(your cpu) to help it along.

the cpu is VERY important if you want smooth framerates. of course you dont want the reverse, say a gf2mx and a p4 3.0ghz machine. but what im saying is you'll increase overall performance if you have a balanced computer, and spend what you were going spend on the best video card on a better cpu + a step below in the vid card department(a 9700or 9500 pro instead of a 9800 pro), basically balancing it out so there is no huge bottleneck and you get what you paid for.

im just sayin this cause ive had friends that have made unwise purchases and they come to me and ask why games dont run fast even though they have the best video card and they were pretty pissed. it would suck to be disappointed when u get hl2 and realize your $400 vid card doesn't make your pc fast. be smart! read reviews on hardware review sites and shop at pricewatch.com if u live in the US. later

 

[G-Man]

thnx 4 the advise but built ma new system like 3moths ago, but for people who r only just upgrading, yr leavin it a bit tight arnt u? 14 days and counting.....

amd 2800+
ati radeon 9800pro
1gb corsair xms

 

[dawdler]

Hardware. Forum. Post. Possible. Use. Search. Mentioned. By. Many. Even. Halflife2. Benchmark. Reviewers.

 

[mortiz]

I might clock my CPU for Half-Life 2, since they reckon you need a 2.5 ghz machine to run it smoothly, well I got a 2ghz running @ 2.3 atm so an extra 200 shouldn't be difficult!

And yes your CPU can seriously bottleneck your Graphics Card!

 

[ice101]

Thanks for the advice - I'm waiting until my "course-related costs" grant goes thru before upgrading, hehe.

 

[mallet]

DAMN! And there was me thinking my 286 would run it ok if I somehow soldered my radeon 9800 pro onto the mobo.

 

[Kuros]

Ok, moved.

 

[Cheater]

is p4 2.4 GHz with a high end card enough to run hl2 in its full glory?? I don't worry about the card, cuz i'm buying it after hl2 comes out, but i worry a bit about the cpu, i bought my computer at the end of last year, so it's a bit old now. is p4 2.4 GHz good enough???

 

[Fat_Bob]

Well well.. i have a 1700XP and i can guarnte that my CPU wont be some kind of a bottlenecker for my future 9800 PRO (or 9900)... If you want to take the bottleneck part serious.. we're talking about maybe 900Mhz to 1300Mhz...

 

[3DDuL]

Fat_Bob: what stepping you got on that XP1700?
A friend of mine is a "professional" overclocker and he's got it to run @ 2715Mhz ;0)
Of course with compressor cooling :cheese:

 

[Solid_Raiden]

Look at my sig. I'm sure it'll be good enough for HL2

 

[Guest]

Originally posted by Solid_Raiden
Look at my sig. I'm sure it'll be good enough for HL2

lol what a shitty comp!