HL2 PC specs, i know there's a lot of threads!

[rose 1138]

Sorry all, i know there have been a lot of threads about running HL2 and the ubiquitious "Will my PC run it boo hoo!" stuff, but i have seen no real reference to a machine roughly similar to mine.

Basically my specs are

Athlon XP 2600+ (2.1mhz)
GeForce 4 Ti4200 64 MB
256 MB DDR sdram
80GB HD (7200rpm)

I know the mems low but i am upgrading to 1GB when creds are available, main question is will HL2 run at 1280*1024 with most option on high, with the 1GB, or will my graphics card hold it back, would a 128MB card be a better, although a GeForce 6800GT is an expensive if possible option.

hild in mind that i will be building a game PC next year with Hyper Thread P4, and 250MB Card with lots o mem and broadband!!!! yay online gaming at last, no more 56k for me!

any advise on what specs would be an idea, budgeting around £250 - ($430)

Cheers all

 

[koopa]

I'd say 'no' to 1280x1024 on mostly high with the 4200, even with 1Gb. Maybe 1024x768 on low would be more realistic with such limited RAM. You have two weak points there. For only £250 I'd be looking at some more RAM and the best graphics card you can get and leave the P4, since a 2600 is just about ok.

 

[rose 1138]

yeh i say only 250 but that could go up especially after xmas as for the card i may aim for a 128 MB but if i am making a new pc i could just save and splash out on the Gforce 6800GT, £300, and the bigger mem, then game should be fine, hmm big gouts of saving must go on!

Also another point, a lot of mention has been made to refresh rates, i have a sony flat screen 17", i know that TFT have a 'natural' resolution, mine being 1024*768, even eith a better card which offers better graphics resolutions could i still be stuck with 1024*768

Finally which would be best:

Memory to 1GB i will be doing anyway but should i get a modest 128MB card or wait, stick with 4 ti4200 and save for the 6800GT which will come down in price over next few months?

 

[Inertiadriftsc]

hmmm well if you really want to go for a good high end graphics card and decent memory, you can buy a 6600 GT AGP which just came out at $200 (I saw one on newegg the other day and [H]ard OCP has a review of it), and then memory which for a good 512 stick is about $100-150, I have 764 of ram and find it is more than enough to play the top games, even with my ti 4800 i am able to play doom 3 at 1024*768 medium quality or on high qulaity at 800*600

 

[koopa]

Also another point, a lot of mention has been made to refresh rates, i have a sony flat screen 17", i know that TFT have a 'natural' resolution, mine being 1024*768, even eith a better card which offers better graphics resolutions could i still be stuck with 1024*768

Your card will go way past 1024x768 - if anything is holding you back it's the monitor. Are you saying your monitor is limited to 1024x768 max? Usually the natural resolution is the one that the picture looks best at (unscaled).

Memory to 1GB i will be doing anyway but should i get a modest 128MB card or wait, stick with 4 ti4200 and save for the 6800GT which will come down in price over next few months?

Stick with the 4200. Personally I wouldn't buy anything less powerful than a 9800 at this point, so don't buy a stopgap card that's going to be obsolete in 6 months unless you aren't planning on playing the next lot of fancy games

 

[rose 1138]

that was apoint you made Inertiadriftsc, you say you have 764MB, my machine is a sony vaio system yes i know.... according to crucial.com, there is only three sticks available, 128, 256 and 512, 512 being roughly £56 (£112 for 1BG) i am currently only on one 256, can i slot in a 512 beside it (i only have 2 slots!) and run at 768 or do the sticks have to be matched?

also in relation to my monitor, my card can go up to about 2100*1280 or something high like that in for example Jedi knight 2 but the figures go a bit blurry, they are sharoper in 1024*768, or maybe 1280*1024 been a while ill check! just a bit worried that no matter what kind a card i get i will be stuck with 1024*768! ho hum the joys of PC ownership!