My FX 5950 Ultra...

[dart321]

My FX 5950 Ultra should play Half-Life 2 at some pretty high levels of detail right? I should have at least a few more years before I need to upgrade right? I can play DOOM 3 on High Quality, 4X AA at 1152x864, every advanced option turn on except Vsync and it runs very smooth. I also have 1 DDR GB RAM and a P4 HT 3.2 GHz. So I should be able to play HL2 on a pretty high GFX setting? Thats all I'm trying to ask.

 

[GPRT]

You will be able to HL2 with decent framerates and settings but the nVidia FX series really was not very good, this means that to enjoy HL2 at absolute max an upgrade to a 6800 or an x800/9800 is probably wise. However the 5950 should still be able to give fairly high FPS but not as high as some ATi hardware.

 

[bosox188]

Yeah I don't care how bad the FX cars were the 5900's and 5950 were still really good. You may even be able to run in dx9 mode.

 

[Dynasty]

Yeah I don't care how bad the FX cars were the 5900's and 5950 were still really good. You may even be able to run in dx9 mode.

uhhhh...no duh m8 :E the FX have the worst architecture for dx9 games tho, but if you can run doom 3 smoothly, then hl2 will be a breeze. hl2 will alter itself to fit your specs...or so ive read. look at the minimum specs for doom 3 and for hl2...enough said.

dart321 a little advice m8: get a 9800 pro if you dont want to upgrade again, but do get a x800 series if you never want to upgrade again for the, say, ....next 100 years lol

x800xt pe : best visual quality known to mankind...enough said (again)

 

[DiSTuRbEd]

uhhhh...no duh m8 :E the FX have the worst architecture for dx9 games tho, but if you can run doom 3 smoothly, then hl2 will be a breeze. hl2 will alter itself to fit your specs...or so ive read. look at the minimum specs for doom 3 and for hl2...enough said.

So you're saying that since he can run doom3 really well on high quality he can do it a breeze with hl2?!?!?

Hate to tell you my friend, HL2 is made with D3D not OpenGL like Doom3..and nvidia isn't so great with d3d, and there dx9 support isn't well either, so the 9800 pro will blow the 5950U out of the water.

 

[bosox188]

Really what I meant to say is it will run dx9 mode at a playable framerate. Most of the FX cards will have to run dx8 mode to be playable.

 

[dart321]

Ah man, now I'm worried. Hmmm... I guess I have to rob a bank again. I mean... uh... damn!

EDIT: I don't suppose that Nvidia would release any drivers that would make things a little bit better with HL2 and the FX series right? It is the most anticipated game of the year (if not years) and I can't imagine them just sitting down and watching ATI soak in all the HL2 playing glory.

 

[poseyjmac]

how about just wait for official halflife2 benchmarks, then make your decision.

 

[bosox188]

Well the 6800's don't have any problems and they'll all run HL2 at max settings and Nvidia can't do much more for the FX cards. Don't worry, you'll be able to run at high settings, in either dx8 or dx9 mode.

 

[Asus]

You should be fine for frame rate however Nvidia works it out.
Image quality and DX9 effects are another matter.
Nvidia has been known to reduce quality for the FX series to speed them up. Not sure what they will do once HL2 is released.

As it stands now, HL2 will have a special Mixed path for the higher FX cards while the lower cards run in DX8 mode. If you run your card on the same path as the ATI cards, it will perform similar to a 9600 Pro.

At least wait for the HL2 benchmarks to come out or even wait til you play HL2 before you decide.

 

[dart321]

Oh defiantly, I'm not even thinking of buying a new card until I have the Half-Life 2 CD spinning in my drive. Thanks everyone for the info by the way.

 

[dart321]

By the way, I have a ATI 9700 Pro. Would that actually be better to run on instead of my FX 5950?

 

[dart321]

*bump *

 

[DiSTuRbEd]

*bump *

Don't bump. It just really depends if it would or not, probably not though, if you had a 9800 Pro, then yeah probably would beat the fx5950.

 

[bosox188]

Oh you have a 9700 pro too? Well, yeah, use the 9700 pro it will run HL2 close to max settings, it would pwn your 5950 in HL2. You're all set.

 

[Cole]

Couldnt u overclock it to a 9800? Cuz aint a 9800 just an overclocked 9700?

 

[bosox188]

No, the 9800 uses a newer core and therefore you cannot turn a 9700 into a 9800. But a 9700 is still a very good card, very close in performance to a 9800.