Video Card

R

Rob

Guest
Sorry for posting a new thread and all and i feel like a real dumbass asking this question but does anyone know how i can find out what video card i have?
 
Right click your desktop and then go to properties. Click the 'settings' tab. It should say "display" about half way down with a drop down box and something like "Plug and Play monitor on XXXXXXXX" the XXXXXXXX's are your graphics card. Clicking on advandced and then the tab which shows XXXXXXXX's name will give you some more info about it
 
Sorry m8, this post is asking for trouble, but I'll give you a straight answer. Basically two options:
1. Open up the case, pull out the card and see what's written on it. Manufacturers nearly always stamp the make and model of the card right on it.

2. Fire up Windows Control Panel, System, Hardware/Device Manager (varies depending what version of Windows-- can't remember all the names now) and look under Display Adapter. (Alternately, just right-clicking the desktop will bring up display settings. From there you can find the device name).

Either one of those should give you the name of your video card.

Or just go out and buy a new one, and keep the box. (Couldn't resist, sorry) :cheese:
 
Ah, Murray_H beat me to it by a minute. Sometimes I'm too damned wordy.
 
Alright thanks a lot guys you both helped sorry to be a pain in the ass again but just let me know if i am hl2 ready lol

ok here i go...

Computer:
Intel Pentium 111 processor
736 MHz
512 MB of Ram

Video Card:
ATI TECHNOLOGIES INC. RAGE 128 GLAGP <~~~i dont even know if thats my video card

Direct X 9.0

and i have windows xp and cable modem and stuff
 
if that is enough just let me know if i should upgrade to make my half life 2 even better
 
Yup, that's a video card, but a pretty old one. HL1 vintage, for sure. You'll almost certainly need a video card upgrade. The Pentium 736Mhz is either just above or just below (depending on which interview you read) the predicted minimum specs, so you'd be well advised to start saving (or begging the folks).
 
What you have got is the bare minimum. I would upgrade but make sure you dont upgrade to just a 1.5ghz processor, that will become outdated very soon. Go for 2ghz+ at the very least, 512mb DDR RAM, Radeon 9500pro or higher. That should see you over for HL2 :)
 
will i be able to play half life 2 without upgrading? if not are there any downloads i can get to upgrade my stuff without having to buy all new things?
 
Well according to what we have heard, yes you can run HL 2 - but with your spec you will be looking at anything from 0-50 fps with all details on low at 800x600.

As for downloadable upgrades.......anything which says that it can improve performance is probably rife with spyware and does very little to improve your PC, probably about the same performance increase you would see from a defrag of your hard drive. Basically, you would see the same performance increase from wedging a pineapple into a spare PCI slot
 
Technology is an amazing thing, but they haven't yet figured out a way to download hardware over the Internet. And hardware, my friend is what you need. As MurrayH said, you're running bare minimum, so you might be able to "run" Half-Life 2, but not really enjoy it all that much.

I agree with Murray's recommendations. (I've got almost exactly that config, but I'm running a year-old Radeon 8500- still sweet). If you don't believe us check out some of the other discussions in this category. Most of us geeks are drooling about systems that cost as much as my first car just so they can have the ultimate HL2 experience, and still some people would rip off Valve for the $40 to buy the actual game. ;(
 
If you want to run Half life 2 better I suggest buying these as what you currently have simply isnt good enough! Whilst Your CPU will just about run half-life 2 your graphics board will run very poorly indeed. What kind of budget do you have? If you're on a limited budget I recommend this sort of system that you can use old parts from your current PC with.

Gigabyte KT266A Chipset. $46
Athlon XP 1800+ 1.53GHz $47
MSI G4Ti4200 $86

grand total = $179

Not bad for a system that will run half life 2 very poorly to one that will run it quite well! It wont look as smooth as what you saw in the E3 video's as for that you will have to spend upwards of $800....
 
How much do you have available to spend? If you ccan scrape together a little more i can price you up soemthing even better than that! :)
 
ill sell you my GREAT TOTALLY AWESOME GEFORCE 2 FOR $400, then ill have to buy a shitty 9800 Pro for a replacment =(. Im such a nice guy.
 
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