HL2 "Stuttering"

[Mr.Herron]

Ok, so i picked up HL2 yesterday after having the demo on my computer for months and months, anyways, i picked up the game because i had just bumped up my videocard from a GeForce 4 (32mb) videocard (Which in fact played hl2 perfectly, it didnt look amazing, but it played extremely smooth) to a nVidia GeForce 6200 (256mb) and now the game does not play smooth at all. It almost seems as if its just too much to handle. So, doing what i assumed could be the culprit, i bumped down all the video settings to low. Well, it still played choppy in random spots of the game, and stuttered (video froze, and sound looped repeatedly) sometimes for minutes on end.

Heres the specs on my computer
Intel Pentium 4 2.4 Ghz
512mb RAM
nVidia GeForce 6200 256mb
250gb Hard drive

I browsed through the forum, searched threads, and came across this one
http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?t=129170
I seemed to be having the same issues. I ran steams crash test and it said my driver was out of date, but the driver i have installed is the newest version i can get.

heres the result for the videocard
Display drivers: Failed
Your nVidia display drivers are currently out of date
For updated drivers, click here
Display Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce 6200
Display Version: 6.14.11.6218
Recommended Driver Version: 91.47
Recommended Driver Date: 09/01/2006
Severity: Very High

Any ideas or suggestions? Thanks in advance!

 

[Ennui]

Update Half-Life 2 and your drivers (go to the NVIDIA website for the latter).

 

[Xendance]

You have the same problem as I do. Stutters and crashes without any error except "Please send to Microsoft.."

I believe its been fixed for Episode Two.

 

[Mr.Herron]

Update Half-Life 2 and your drivers (go to the NVIDIA website for the latter).

Where exactly do i update half-life? Sorry, im fairly new to steam games. :dork:

I got the game running pretty smooth for now, but it still hangs up every once in a while. I managed to make it from Chapter four (water hazard) to chapter 12(follow freeman) without much troubles. Untill i hit the middle of chapter 12, then it started hanging up. When the game was running smooth i also tested out the graphics to see if it would still play smooth all the way through and it sure enough, no hang-ups, no stuttering, just amazing gameplay. (All graphics options were set to high)

i think i almost have it bug free. Thanks for the help.

 

[jpventoso]

It seems like you solved it, but with that card (unless it's TurboCache) you should be playing with all settings in High (but no antialiasing) at 1024x768 without any stuttering (and no crashes).
It seems that the main problem there is your RAM. Upgrade it to 1GB and you'll note a BIG improvement.
Then, you may try updating your video drivers, and updating the game itself from Steam... But I insist... RAM is the key.

 

[Mr.Herron]

It seems like you solved it, but with that card (unless it's TurboCache) you should be playing with all settings in High (but no antialiasing) at 1024x768 without any stuttering (and no crashes).
It seems that the main problem there is your RAM. Upgrade it to 1GB and you'll note a BIG improvement.
Then, you may try updating your video drivers, and updating the game itself from Steam... But I insist... RAM is the key.

I agree 110%, only problem for me is finding compatible ram, my motherboard supports 2gb's, but its DDR333. Fairly old unfortunately. I found that Newegg has the ram, i'll probably order the ram as soon as i pick up my paycheck.

On a side note, i just finished HL2 about 5 minutes ago, and wow. I can easily say its the most amazing game i've ever played.

I'll keep you guys updated once i get the new ram. Thanks again.