geforce fx go5200 registering as dx8?

[tomo]

hi all, this is my first post.
i've had a look through all the stickies and i've done a search but i haven't found anything useful to me, so i'm sorry if this is a known thing or has been done to death.
i'm running a dell inspiron 5150, xp pro sp2, intel 2.8ghz, 768mb, 40gb, nv gf go5200 64mb overclocked. i'm happy enough with how hl2 runs, for a laptop. the gpu is the bottleneck i reckon.
anyway, unless i'm hugely mistaken the go5200 is meant to be a dx9 compatible card, like all the goXXXXs. however in the video setup page of hl2 it says that it's running dx8 on hardware and dx9 on software. shurely shome mishtake?
it was doing this since before i overclocked too, i'm certain.
thanks for any ideas or help.
ps i'm using driver version 6.7.4.2 according to the system dialogue.

 

[giant384]

ur correct the fx5200 is dx9 card but it runs in sx8 by default because the fx5200 is not powerful enough to run dx9 in hl2

 

[Dumb Dude]

From what I gather all the FX cards that are DX9 register as DX8 in HL2. There is a way to force it but you get a huge perfomance hit, although with a program called 3D Analyze, you can make it run really good with DX9. More info here: http://db.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/file/half_life_2_tweak.txt

 

[tomo]

thanks guys.
i gave that program a go (though i had to hunt for it and the tutorial, your link seems to be broken) and it certainly got things running in dx9 but at about 5fps! doesn't matter, i'm v happy with the way things run at the moment under dx8. it's way better than i expected from a laptop with good specs apart from a shitty gpu.
thing is if i could drop the res i would and things would be great but because of lcd screens anything other than 1400*1050 just looks horrible!
thanks again.

 

[firemachine69]

From what I gather all the FX cards that are DX9 register as DX8 in HL2. There is a way to force it but you get a huge perfomance hit, although with a program called 3D Analyze, you can make it run really good with DX9. More info here: http://db.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/file/half_life_2_tweak.txt

No such thing exists - trust me.


Your video sucks, especially since it's on a laptop. Not much you can do about it.


No FX series card will EVER run "really good" utilizing DX9 codepaths... It's a design flaw, something that cannot be fixed by drivers.

 

[Dumb Dude]

Sorry for the bad link, try this one: http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/game/914642.html

Then click the tweaking guide. It tells you how to use that program for HL2. And yes, it is possible for the FX cards to run DX9 very well, but I am not sure about your 5200. It might work with about low to medium depending on the other specs.

 

[tomo]

Your video sucks, especially since it's on a laptop. Not much you can do about it.

you'd be surprised, i'm very happy with it. 1400*1050, low quality shaders, high quality models, textures, shadows, lowest reflection, no antialising and bilinear filtering. certainly not the best hl2 can do by any stretch of the imagination but far beyond satisfactory for a laptop.

 

[bodhi]

the reason the 5 series defaults to DX8 rather than DX 9 is because fx cards support 16fp and 32fp. direct x 9 must be at least 24fp which means below that (i.e. 16fp is not direct x 9 .... and above it, i.e.32fp is obviously more than 24 but requires more power.) the fx 5 series isnt powerful enough to do DX9 32fp which is the only DX9 option available to it. ATi cards do 16fp and 24fp. so they can do direct x 9 without any problems.


its not tht vavle screwed over Nvidia. Nvidia sorta shot themselves in the foot by not having a happy medium or 24fp. whereas Ati did. hence better hl2 performance for ati. that said ive got a FX 6600 and its good in dx9. very nice looking

 

[ScORCHo]

I have a fx 5600 and it was running in dx8. i messed around with the dxlevel and ran it in dx7 to see what it was like, but now i cant get it back to dx8, it just always goes back to dx7. is there a way to re-register my card or something? because now i have crap looking water, short draw distance, and for some reason i have the white light boxes where all the lights are.

 

[FireCrack]

Yeah, the 5k series is kinda a mess up. They support some features of DX9 but not others, wich kinda breaks the ones they do support.

 

[Dumb Dude]

I have a fx 5600 and it was running in dx8. i messed around with the dxlevel and ran it in dx7 to see what it was like, but now i cant get it back to dx8, it just always goes back to dx7. is there a way to re-register my card or something? because now i have crap looking water, short draw distance, and for some reason i have the white light boxes where all the lights are.

Don't use dxlevel through the console. Instead put +mat_dxlevel 80 in the launch options.