Half-Life 2

[jgillis81]

I'd like to run Half-Life 2 (and all the mods/episodes/etc.) with the
top graphics settings. I was hoping you could recommend what I should
upgrade? I think it's my graphics card. If so, would a 512mb card
make the game run without choppy animation? I'd prefer to stick with
ATI brand video cards.

p4 2.66
1 gb sdram (two 512mb sticks)
256 ATI Radeon 9550 video card
Windows XP Pro (not a preinstalled from the manufacturer OS. I used an
official MS XP Pro disc)

Thanks for any suggestions.

- John

 

[James]

I'd like to run Half-Life 2 (and all the mods/episodes/etc.) with the
top graphics settings. I was hoping you could recommend what I should
upgrade? I think it's my graphics card. If so, would a 512mb card
make the game run without choppy animation? I'd prefer to stick with
ATI brand video cards.

p4 2.66
1 gb sdram (two 512mb sticks)
256 ATI Radeon 9550 video card
Windows XP Pro (not a preinstalled from the manufacturer OS. I used an
official MS XP Pro disc)

Thanks for any suggestions.

My experience with a 512 MB card is that for most games you won't
notice any difference. Instead go for the fastest processor you can
afford.

You don't mention it but I presume you have an AGP slot, so thats a
limitation - you can't run the latest and greatest PCIexpress cards.

But an x800 or x850 would work fine and run Half Life 2 pretty well.

James

 

[Andrew MacPherson]

Instead go for the fastest processor you can
afford.

Most FPS games like HL2 don't need a lot of CPU, but to run it with all
the graphical bells & whistles will take a much meatier graphics card
than a 9550. I ran HL2 on what's now a rather old X800Pro, and had no
trouble pushing up the details/HDR on a 2.2GHz AMD Barton (32-bit).

I agree with you 512Mb on a vid card still seems to be a waste of money.

Andrew McP

 

[jgillis81]

Thanks everyone for the input. I'm going to look into an x800 card as
an option.

 

[James]

Most FPS games like HL2 don't need a lot of CPU, but to run it with all
the graphical bells & whistles will take a much meatier graphics card
than a 9550. I ran HL2 on what's now a rather old X800Pro, and had no
trouble pushing up the details/HDR on a 2.2GHz AMD Barton (32-bit).

I agree with you 512Mb on a vid card still seems to be a waste of money.

Andrew McP

Yeah let me be clear I meant graphics processor or GPU. I had a x700
with 512 and then bought an x850 with 256 - no contest at all.

X800XLs are now falling down in price....I've seen them recently for
$149 Cdn.

James

 

[Mark Jeffries]

p4 2.66

1 gb sdram (two 512mb sticks)
256 ATI Radeon 9550 video card
Windows XP Pro (not a preinstalled from the manufacturer OS. I used an
official MS XP Pro disc)

The biggest bang for the buck in this system will be the graphics card
Next get 2GB of ram if you can afford it (1GB will have some swapping to
hard disk for recent games)
The CPU is fine (for games) until you feel the urge to upgrade the whole
system.