How will a P4 1.9 Ghz perform (best guess?)

[Rize]

With most (all?) of the graphics technology running on the GPU itself and the engine scalable to an 800 Mhz machine, how will Half-Life 2 run on a 1.9 as opposed to a 3+ Ghz processor?

If it won't run with the full settings, what will be scaled? Less accurate physics? Poorer sound?

I intend to upgrade to the latest graphics card and a Dolby Digital 5.1 sound card whenever HL2 is released, but I was hoping I wouldn't have to wait/save for a better processor.

However, I intend to play Half-Life 2 with EVERY setting maxed, even if it means waiting another few months (assuming that it is coming out on September 30th).

So, can anyone tell me (based on whatever interviews and previews you've read) just what benefits (if any) I would gain by upgrading my processor as well.

I know this is a difficult (if not impossible) question to accurately answer, so any educated speculation will be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[D33]

Hardware

Forum.

 

[SnowBall]

Any answer would be greatly appreciated as I have a P4 1.8. I would imagine getting a sound card would talke a load off of your processor. My guess Is you should be fine (at least I hope so.)

 

[Garp]

From what I've heard the game isn't all that processor intensive, your GPU will take most of the hit.

 

[BWMASTER]

Don't look at me, I have an athlon 1ghz with geforce 4 Mx 420(sounds good but its crap to todays games)

And i'm expecting to play HL2 on it.

New computer starting to look probable after the holidays...

 

[SnowBall]

Gf4 mx? Might wanna upgrade that... Thats almost the equivilant of a Geforce 2.

 

[Garp]

Yeah drop that MX quick!

 

[Seikeden]

those benchmarks from shader day said otherwise. the tech demos hammered the video cards with multiple complex shaders, whereas the city 17 ones hammered the cpu with lots of ai, physics, and heaps of open areas with plenty of geometry. I think its safe to say, whatever you have, you could probably want more of it

 

[Cheater]

yeah, they say u need like 1 GB ram. but i don't think that's the problem, cuz ram is cheap. I'm afraid that my cpu can't run hl2 in its full glory even when i'm using the ati 9800 pro.

 

[Rize]

"those benchmarks from shader day said otherwise. the tech demos hammered the video cards with multiple complex shaders, whereas the city 17 ones hammered the cpu with lots of ai, physics, and heaps of open areas with plenty of geometry. I think its safe to say, whatever you have, you could probably want more of it"

Right, so how does this affect an 800 mhz system? Are the framerates limited? Or are the physics calculations not as accurate?

And RAM is not necessarily cheap. If you have cheap RAM it's cheap, but I have RDRAM. I hope 256 MB is enough I hate PC games sometimes.

 

[Fat_Bob]

Well.. seems like its time to buy a new or upgrade my computer after X-mas (when you've got alot of money from your parents =)

 

[Pol]

From what I've heard the game isn't all that processor intensive, your GPU will take most of the hit.

i hope so
my 1.5ghz isnt amazing, so i'm hoping alot ofweight will be pulled by my radeon 9800

 

[Sideshow]

I´m also worried about the performance with my rig. My 2500+ barton is anly 1,83hz... not inuff if you ask me.

 

[City Hunter]

I also have only a p4 2GHz, but I think with a Radeon9800Pro it should run fine. Only problem is, I must buy a 9800 pro first. At the moment I have a gf4mx and I don´t want to see HL2 on it.

 

[Global_Inferno]

Well I can tell you with absoloute certainty that the 1.9GHz P4 WILL PERFORM worse than the 2GHz and BETTER than the 1.8GHz...

Other than that... no idea!

AMD all the way baby!

 

[Sushi]

Right now I'm confident that I'll be able to run HL2 at max detail at at least 800*600 with reasonable fps with my rig. If I can get about 15-20 fps average on the D3 alpha (keep in mind it is much more demanding than HL2 and isn't optimized much) HL2 should be a walk in the park. And if I need more performance, I can always oc some stuff.