pci card

[Dirk1134]

Right now i'm running HL2 on a 2.4Ghz system with (sadly) only a PCI Radeon 7000. My motherboard does not support AGP...

I am considering getting a PCI geForce 5200 so I can run the game in Dx9... I'm just wondering if having a PCI card is going to cause much of a problem! Would it be worth it to do, or should I not bother if it's PCI? I'm no expert in the subject, so any help would be great. Note that I am set on getting an nVidia card, as I've had horrible experiences with ATI in the past, and also I don't have the money at this second to get a new motherboard, so this is a cheap alternative until I can raise the funds...

 

[hungryduck]

Well, unfortunately, Any Geforce FX card, including the 5200 PCI cannot run hl2 in Direct X 9 mode....valve only lets $400 nvidias (i think?) and ATI 9000 series do this. Even though the Nvidia box may say DX9 support, HL2 will not allow it. You can force it into DX9 mode, but you will see a murderous FPS drop, and it isnt worth it. HL2 still looks great on DX8, but a 5200 isn't that great of a card anyway, I would recommend a ATI RADEON 9250 PCI, its an okay card, (Better I think than Geforce 5200, correct me if I'm wrong).
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-102-434&depa=0

Hope this helps.

 

[Dirk1134]

Oh wow. So This should allow me to play in D9 mode, with decent FPS even though it's a PCI card?

Thanks for the help!