Half Life 2 - Problem with graphics card

[cycloolephin]

Ok, I only have the demo of Half Life 2, but unless I figure out what's wrong I won't buy the full game...My computer is brand new(2010) - it has 4GB of ram, and the graphics card is an ATI display adapter version 8.702.0.0(not sure what any of that means) with 256MB of memory, and also over 600GB of free harddrive. But when I play Half Life 2, it runs slowly at certain points - such as turning on the flashlight in a dark area, or flames. I thought it was because the graphics card was poor, but I read that Half Life 2 only takes 64MB of memory for the graphics card. Any help would be appreciated, thanks. But please keep your answers in english because I'm clueless when it comes to these terms and numbers.

Edit: I forgot to say that my computer has Windows 7.

 

[Damic]

Run GPU-Z then you know what card you have.
Is HL2 running in 64bit or 32bit mode? (Steam > library > right click Halflife2 > properties > set launch options > add -32b and see what happens)
Installed the latest AMD drivers? Current driver is 11.01 64b
How high are your display settings?

 

[Hectic Glenn]

Press the windows key + r - in the run box type dxdiag, press yes. Go to the display tab and tell us what the exact graphics card you have. You haven't given enough information for that yet. The amount of memory on a graphics card isn't directly indicative of how good it actually is, there are many other more important factors to consider if we knew the model.

I also am assuming you have turned the settings down to see if that helps.

edit: Also would be worth telling us what processor you have - its in the first page of dxdiag under "processor"

 

[cycloolephin]

Thanks for replying...I'm not sure exactly which part says what the driver is, so I'll just copy directly.

Main Driver: atiu9p64 aticfx64 aticfx64 atiu9pag
Version: 8.702.0.0
Date:
WHQL Logo'd: n/a
DDI Version: 10.1
Driver Model: WDDM 1.1

My processor is Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7600) from HP.

I was running the game in 1280x1024, so I tried different settings for that. Only when I took it down to 800x600 did it start running the correct speed, but the graphics look terrible. My monitor is 1280x1024 however. Also I've tried before to lower the other settings, but the speed was the same.

I also tried putting -32b in, and it ran the same speed.

 

[Damic]

@Glenn: let him run GPU-Z is much better then OEM dxdiag.

Great hp pc: run CPU-Z also.

 

[Hectic Glenn]

I don't want to complicate things by asking him to install external programs, indeed he could use those but I just want the basic spec information.

Cyclo - for the display tab, you've read the information from the right side 'Drivers' I want the information on the left side under 'Device'.

Also on the main tab I wanted the processor under the 'processor' title, you've given me 'Operating System'. Processor is 4th from the bottom.

 

[cycloolephin]

Ah, sorry about that. I don't know anything when it comes to computers.

Processor: AMD Athlon II X4 630 Processor (4 CPUs), ~2.8GHz

Graphics card:
Name: RS8880
Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.
Chip Type: ATI display adapter (0x9710)
DAC Type: Internal DAC(400MHz)
Approx. Total Memory: 1912 MB
Current Display Mode: 1280 x 1024 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor: Generic PnP Monitor

 

[Damic]

You know you can run them out of the zip file

What's a RS8880? (looking for it)

Ok found something, your card would be a onboard chip (Radeon 4200) on the motherboard, go to your local pc store buy a Ati 5770 and you can play the game
>> http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1208331

 

[funlover1700]

Hi,
I need some help with HL2 (Full Version)
Sometimes the framerate would go on to 20-30 FPS of DirectX 9.0, 8.1 and 9.0c
When i enter like a big area, the framerate would drop to below 20
And on DirectX 9.0, my Intel GFX video chip driver would crash, crashing the game.
It only occurs when i like push the big Combine vehicle into the water and the debris would fly out, it also occurs when i see the ground turrets in the "Follow Freeman" part in the Nexus building (the one Barney mentioned) and also occurs in the Citadel when you're riding in a capsule-like cell and you see the sky, it crashes only there, and i also want some FPS improvement. Can anyone know how?

System Specs:
Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit w/ Service Pack 2
Intel GMA 945 Express Chipset Family (onboard with my laptop)
HP Pavilion dv6000
1 GB of RAM
140 GB of HDD (most of it is used, only 1GB left of free space)
Intel Dual-Core processor

 

[funlover1700]

@ cycloolephin Try putting your heapsize in the shortcut properties.
These might be recommended for other Source games like CS:S
-high -heapsize 2048000 -dxlevel 95
Use -dxlevel 95 if your onboard chip supports DirectX Level 9.0c (mine has DirectX 10.0 but i use -dxlevel 95) and DirectX 9.0
Hope you buy the full version
For the heapsize, if it doesn't work, find the full amount of your RAM (in MB) and divide it by 2, and that is your heapsize you should use, for mine, i have 1024 MB (which is equivalent to 1GB of RAM) of RAM i divide it by 2 = 512000 is my heapsize

 

[tschumann]

i also want some FPS improvement. Can anyone know how?r

There are some suggest console commands here. Getting a new graphics card would be the best solution though, because some Intel graphics cards aren't compatible with Source.