HL2 performance

[The_Don]

Have there been any clues as to what system specs will be required to run HL2 at a good quality? The last I heard was last year when people were saying it would be less demanding than Deus Ex 2 (which was poorly optimised thanks to X-Box taking presidence, bastards). However, a lot has changed since then so does anyone know what to expect? ie, what kind of graphics card etc.

Cheers :cheers:


BTW; If this has already been covered in another thread, I apologise, but please direct me to it (I haven't found one). This is my first post in these forums, but I know there will be some who will have a fit if I've duplicated a question, as if I insulted their very existence.

 

[kaf11]

i believe someone from valve said that an ati radeon 9800 would run the game with all settings at max, granted that you have a decent cpu and ram.

 

[ShinRa]

Recommended specs are a 1 mhz computer, with onboard video and sound. About 16kb of sdr ram should do the trick as well, so it doesn't bottleneck your cpu.

 

[MindCrafter]

"16kb of sdr ram"

guinny, seriously? That's 0.016mb of ram.

 

[KagePrototype]

Recommended specs are a 1 mhz computer, with onboard video and sound. About 16kb of sdr ram should do the trick as well, so it doesn't bottleneck your cpu.

Ghz mate. 1 Mhz doesn't even run Quake.

I think Valve have said that all you need CPU-wise is 1.3Ghz, and getting anything above this wouldn't make much difference. With a Radeon 9800 Pro and 512MB RAM, it should run very well.

 

[Ateoto]

@MindCrafter: Hes kidding you man
But this thread has a lot of good info in it System Requirements

 

[ShinRa]

no i meant....ONE megahert. not 1000 megahertz...thats overkill.

.......digerati im not kidding...........

 

[Impulse147]

My CPU and RAm are fine, and i'm gonna see how it runs on my gf2 mx400 b4 i buy a new card.

 

[The_Don]

Thanks for the link Digerati :smoking:

 

[shapeshifter]

gonna see how it runs on my gf2 mx400

LOL its going to look like your running half life one. that and it will be a slide show

 

[Impulse147]

we'll see... if not i'll buy me a radeon 9800 pro.

also am i allowed to say how the illegal Hl2 ran on my pc?

 

[shapeshifter]

we'll see... if not i'll buy me a radeon 9800 pro.

also am i allowed to say how the illegal Hl2 ran on my pc?

no they don't like any one talking about it, and even if you were getting 100fps or whatever, that was an alpha (which will be nothing like the final) tons of things were missing. and when it was first leaked, they had screenshots comparing just what each card render path would look like.

Ati 9x00 cards running dx9 looked the best.

then there was the pudesa semi dx9 (mostly dx8) fx card path which you could see the diffrence very much so. then it went down and down..

so dx8 you could see even less image quality and nice features dx7 etc.

your Mx card is a dx7 card soo.

 

[Sai]

i think you should be as long as you don't say anything about the game specifically, but take in mind that that was a very unofficial version and they could have changed a million things one performance for low-ends by now

 

[Impulse147]

well i won't say anything, but i might go with the x800, i saw the benchmark results in my last pc gamer and its smokin.

 

[ShinRa]

and thats just the pro. :-D god the xt is going to flyyyyyyyy.

 

[Impulse147]

heres some of the benchmark results for the x800 xt: Quake 3 got 351 fps at 1280x1024, Halo got 63 fps at 1280x1024, and farcry got 55 fps at 1280x1024

and the 3dmar03 is :11,361 and aquamark2 score:55,320 ,GFX:7,854

 

[Impulse147]

and those were all with max settings.

 

[serum.157]

well i emailed valve the other day and asked em about hl2 specs needed for running everything maxed out. they didn't give me a specific answer, but said i would be able to run the game fine with everything maxed out at 1600x1200 with my specs, which are:

cpu: p4 3.0C Ghz
ram: OCZ 2 x 1024 MB dual channel kit enhanced bandwidth platinum pc3200
gpu: ati x800 xt platinum
sound: audigy 2 zs and klipsch promedia 5.1 ultra
psu: antec trueblue 480w
HD: 2 x 120 GB seagate SATA (RAID 0)
etc...

this probably won't really help everyone but just thought i would share

 

[iamaelephant]

Thats rediculously fast

But really I expect HL2 to run on my PC, Athlon 2500+, 768mb RAM, 9600xt, with full details or very close to full without too much problems.

Then again, some people on these boards think it's going to destroy your experience with HL2 if you have to turn the graphics down a notch, personally I think thats crap. I have played Far Cry on full details and it does look magnificant, but if I turn it down a notch it runs quite alot better and yet I can hardly notice the difference in graphics.

 

[iamaelephant]

serum.157 why would you bother asking about that? Of course that system will run everything on full.

 

[serum.157]

serum.157 why would you bother asking about that? Of course that system will run everything on full.

just curious... wanted to see what valve would say. I just wanna make sure that when the game is out I can play it fully with all bells and whistles on. I was expecting obviously that my system will run it amazingly, just wanted to hear what they would say...

PS: Those specs are BEFORE the overclock.... its gonna be like p4 3.6 Ghz and 460 mhz ram or somethin.... w00t

 

[Kifpe]

just curious... wanted to see what valve would say. I just wanna make sure that when the game is out I can play it fully with all bells and whistles on. I was expecting obviously that my system will run it amazingly, just wanted to hear what they would say...

PS: Those specs are BEFORE the overclock.... its gonna be like p4 3.6 Ghz and 460 mhz ram or somethin.... w00t

I don't think that I can belief that that's your system specs..... I havn't heard anything about a x800 Platinium...

 

[iamaelephant]

So basically, serum.157, you wanted to show Gabe your huge e-penis?

 

[shapeshifter]

Thats rediculously fast

But really I expect HL2 to run on my PC, Athlon 2500+, 768mb RAM, 9600xt, with full details or very close to full without too much problems.

Then again, some people on these boards think it's going to destroy your experience with HL2 if you have to turn the graphics down a notch, personally I think thats crap. I have played Far Cry on full details and it does look magnificant, but if I turn it down a notch it runs quite alot better and yet I can hardly notice the difference in graphics.

It will! no really it won't, but myself I want it all. So to that effect my xp-m 2500+ is running at a nice 12.5x200 (2.5ghz) top that off with 1 gb of pc3200 ram and a AIW 9800 pro overclocked to 9800xt specs and Im good to go :thumbs:

 

[Shuzer]

well i emailed valve the other day and asked em about hl2 specs needed for running everything maxed out. they didn't give me a specific answer, but said i would be able to run the game fine with everything maxed out at 1600x1200 with my specs, which are:

cpu: p4 3.0C Ghz
ram: OCZ 2 x 1024 MB dual channel kit enhanced bandwidth platinum pc3200
gpu: ati x800 xt platinum
sound: audigy 2 zs and klipsch promedia 5.1 ultra
psu: antec trueblue 480w
HD: 2 x 120 GB seagate SATA (RAID 0)
etc...

this probably won't really help everyone but just thought i would share

Because, you know, speakers, harddrive brands, PSUs and sound cards are *HUGE* determing factors for game framerates..

My 17" monitor adds 5 FPS!!11 LOLZ

 

[shapeshifter]

Because, you know, speakers, harddrive brands, PSUs and sound cards are *HUGE* determing factors for game framerates..

My 17" monitor adds 5 FPS!!11 LOLZ

yes, well not quite, having a namebrand hd can make a speed diffrence between a diffrent manfucters, having better speakers = better sound. having better ram = tighter timmings which in turns = better speed and performance.

Having a good 17" monitor like say viewsonic or NEC makes the game LOOK better then same some POS from samsung or BenQ. :angel:

 

[Shuzer]

yes, well not quite, having a namebrand hd can make a speed diffrence between a diffrent manfucters, having better speakers = better sound. having better ram = tighter timmings which in turns = better speed and performance.

Having a good 17" monitor like say viewsonic or NEC makes the game LOOK better then same some POS from samsung or BenQ. :angel:

..I never mentioned RAM. HDs can't improve FPS, they can improve load times/load twitchiness.

Point is, none of those affect actual ingame performance (although, a sound card can actually improve performance compared to onboard, with/without EAX, etc), and it's useless to mention them.

"I'll be playing HL2 with my system, which has an MX700! My MX700 is almighty and important to the overall performance of HL2, so I had to mention it."

 

[shapeshifter]

..I never mentioned RAM. HDs can't improve FPS, they can improve load times/load twitchiness.

Point is, none of those affect actual ingame performance (although, a sound card can actually improve performance compared to onboard, with/without EAX, etc), and it's useless to mention them.

"I'll be playing HL2 with my system, which has an MX700! My MX700 is almighty and important to the overall performance of HL2, so I had to mention it."

HD's do factor into it. sure they may not affect fps, but just toss in some old 5400rpm drive and then say an scsi 10k drive and you will see a diffrence in how the game handles.

same goes for ammouant of ram, more ram you have, the less hd thrashing you will get.

 

[Shuzer]

HD's do factor into it. sure they may not affect fps, but just toss in some old 5400rpm drive and then say an scsi 10k drive and you will see a diffrence in how the game handles.

same goes for ammouant of ram, more ram you have, the less hd thrashing you will get.

grarrr.. I KNOW that. I'm talking about ACTUAL performance, not load times/handling. Besides, I never mentioned RAM as I know that has a major affect on loads/overall smooth gameplay (ie. caching new sounds, textures, particles, etc).. I went from 512 to 1GB recently, noticed a world of a difference in FarCry

 

[shapeshifter]

grarrr.. I KNOW that. I'm talking about ACTUAL performance, not load times/handling. Besides, I never mentioned RAM

it still IS performance, no one in there right mind would want to play the game on an old slow hd. Performance is not just measured in FPS like most people think. You want it to be FUN and an experiance, not an exercise in frustration as you wait 15 mintues for a level to load, or every time you try to turn quickly the game stutters like hell.

 

[Shuzer]

it still IS performance, no one in there right mind would want to play the game on an old slow hd. Performance is not just measured in FPS like most people think. You want it to be FUN and an experiance, not an exercise in frustration as you wait 15 mintues for a level to load, or every time you try to turn quickly the game stutters like hell.

..go back to what I originally posted. I said ingame performance, I wasn't talking about load times/etc. It's fine to include the RAM, as I said, that makes a huge difference. However, including your HD size/make is generally pointless, RPM is fine. Speakers is a retarded entry too, as is mouse, monitor, soundcard, etc.

Anyway, my original point was that guy who posted that is a moron and his specs are made up anyway

 

[shapeshifter]

..go back to what I originally posted. I said ingame performance, I wasn't talking about load times/etc. It's fine to include the RAM, as I said, that makes a huge difference. However, including your HD size/make is generally pointless, RPM is fine. Speakers is a retarded entry too, as is mouse, monitor, soundcard, etc.

Anyway, my original point was that guy who posted that is a moron and his specs are made up anyway

I can agree that :cheers:

 

[Impulse147]

cpu: p4 3.0C Ghz
ram: OCZ 2 x 1024 MB dual channel kit enhanced bandwidth platinum pc3200
gpu: ati x800 xt platinum
sound: audigy 2 zs and klipsch promedia 5.1 ultra
psu: antec trueblue 480w
HD: 2 x 120 GB seagate SATA (RAID 0)
etc...

how much did you pay for all that, and yes the x800 are real, newegg has em for about 460 bucks, which means the 9800 pro has dropped to 200 bucks.

 

[Shuzer]

I can agree that :cheers:

:cheers: Glad we can agree on that =)
But yeah, point well received on the enjoyability of games with lower speed HDs

how much did you pay for all that, and yes the x800 are real, newegg has em for about 460 bucks, which means the 9800 pro has dropped to 200 bucks.

newegg has the X800 Pros available. The X800 XT's aren't out yet, AFAIK. Gateway seemed to have a small amount of stock, but it's gone now if it was true.

 

[shapeshifter]

newegg has the X800 Pros available. The X800 XT's aren't out yet, AFAIK. Gateway seemed to have a small amount of stock, but it's gone now if it was true.

Everyone at rage3d picked those up, I watched it unfold (or read I suppose)

 

[Subz]

guinny how much will that pc cost you? dayumm man. were u work

 

[iamaelephant]

It will! no really it won't, but myself I want it all. So to that effect my xp-m 2500+ is running at a nice 12.5x200 (2.5ghz) top that off with 1 gb of pc3200 ram and a AIW 9800 pro overclocked to 9800xt specs and Im good to go :thumbs:

Do you seriously think my PC wont be able to run at almost full detail smoothly? I was under the impression that my setup is pretty much what HL2 was based around :afro:

Ah well doesnt bother me all that much :dork:

 

[shapeshifter]

Do you seriously think my PC wont be able to run at almost full detail smoothly? I was under the impression that my setup is pretty much what HL2 was based around :afro:

Ah well doesnt bother me all that much :dork:

nope not saying that (but you never know, in a huge sceen with a bunch of enimes you could get some chop or major slow down, hell even I think I will get slow down at that 2 strider battle area) and thats only parts we have seen!

 

[Sai]

on graphics cards, i was wondering what the best pci card on the market is, and yes i know pci is practically extinct by now, but i have a pretty decent pc it's just my card slots are the problem

 

[JimmehH]

Sai: ATI 9200 or nVidia FX 5200. I think the ATI one is slightly better but there's no great difference. Not one that you'd really notice on PCI.