The Gamer's Quarter

[antitype]

OK, I've been putting this off long enough, but only because I've never had a PC powerful enough to run it. I have an HP Pavilion AMD Athlon XP 3200+ 2.20 GHz w/ 448 mb of ram. And I mean, it will run the HL2 demo I have, but only at, like, 2 f/s, and when I try to lower the texture detail and things like that it just crashes. So what I'm hoping is that I'll simply be able to install a new video card and bam, it will run smoothly, maybe even with some higher detail/resolution settings.

So. Could anyone recommend a nice, affordable graphics accelerator — perhaps one that is particularly tailored toward this game?

This started with me deciding to replay the original Half-Life, which (aside from X-Com: UFO Defense) probably remains my favorite PC game ever. Until I play HL2, right? So right now I want to play HL2 more than anything; more than I want a 360 or a Wii or another Zelda. And from there I could see myself paying a lot more attention to PC gaming. I've wanted to play a lot of other games for a while: Fallout, Thief, Deus Ex, Homeworld, Black & White, Psychonauts, Darwinia, Defcon, FEAR, possibly Doom 3, Morrowind/Oblivion, Spore, and so on...
_________________
antitype.livejournal.com | last.fm

[dongle]

get a 7600GS for about $100 and some more RAM and you'll be good.

[dhex]

yeah, nvidia has always treated me right.

you definitely need more ram, though.
_________________

[antitype]

I guess I need to open this thing up and find out whether I've got an AGP or PCI/Express slot, too.

How much is a solid amount of ram for most PC games these days? A gig? If that?

I did a little searching and this old article is a bit reassuring: http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=19405

I imagine Episode 1 and the forthcoming HL installments will be a bit more demanding, though.
_________________
antitype.livejournal.com | last.fm

[Dracko]

Half-Life 2 works fine on my widescreen laptop and that has 512Mb of RAM. Sure, it works better in Medium detail, but High can work as well, and bloom effects and such have always been left on.

It's a well-coded game. It shouldn't be hard to run if your system is even half-decent. I'm not sure how much RAM costs these days, though, but to be on the safe side, it seems most of my friends opt for 2 or 3 gigs.
_________________
"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

[Joe]

I run most things fine on a gig. I could stand for 2, though.
_________________

[antitype]

So! Turned out I only had an AGP slot to work with, and I had to do a little hunting. Came upon the nVidia GeForce FX 5200 today, and figured it was worth a shot, being only $60 (and the guy at Comp USA said I could just return it if it didn't work for whatever reason). I also bought the HL2 game of the year edition (w/ HL Source, etc.) and HL2: Episode One, 'cause I figured even if the new video card didn't work, I'd want to have those around anyway (and why am I seeing this GOTY edition being listed for $100 on Amazon?).

I'm installing HL2 right now (5 CDs, jesus), but I tested out Deus Ex to see what improvements there were, and that one is of course no problem; the greater test was the HL2 demo, and it looked pleasingly smooth. Gonna mess with detail settings and stuff once this installation is finished...

I also picked up a copy of Darwinia for $10 (!), and was tempted by FEAR, but that one's probably still a little out of my range...
_________________
antitype.livejournal.com | last.fm

[Six]

Yeah, the FEAR demo chugged along at a few frames per second on mine, and with that video card you've got pretty much the same setup as me (Athlon XP, etc., though your clock speed's a bit faster.)

I'm probably going to cave and get that Half-Life 2 GOTY box next month (I was holding out because I'm cheap) - there's no way to install it without Steam though, right?

[antitype]

Yeah, not as far as I know.

I am having a couple of minor problems. The game runs very nicely on its default detail settings with the resolution maxed out, but when I try to adjust things like the texture detail or shader detail, the game freezes and audio locks into a half-second loop. Anyone ever encounter this? I'm wondering if it'll work normally once I upgrade my new card's drivers.

Come to think of it, I've had a different but even more baffling problem with the original Half-Life, which I've been playing. The only way that I can play the game in OpenGL mode without having it crash after less than a minute is to actually change the rendering to Software, load my game, and then switch to OpenGL. If I try to load the game with it already rendering in OpenGL, it crashes. Weird, huh?

EDIT: Nevermind! I wasn't actually having a problem with HL2; I just wasn't being patient enough, thinking the game was hanging on me. It's evidently going to be better for me to run it with medium detail settings, anyway, since changing settings to high just makes the sound stutter (which seems a little odd).

I think I'll finish my game of HL1 (nice to know that HL: Source allows you to jump in at any chapter) before moving on to HL2.

Shit, gotta finish Deus Ex, too! I'm in Hong Kong right now, and the game just got really, ah, goofy.

Also: Darwinia is beautiful. It's like Syndicate meets The Sentinel! (I always did want to play Sentinel Returns...)
_________________
antitype.livejournal.com | last.fm

[dongle]

RETURN THAT CARD IMMEDIATELY

the 5x00 series of nvidia cards were a total abortion. i have one in my laptop, and it's just a miserable line. $60 is also way too much. You'll be running your games in 8x6 with lots of stuff turned off.

here are better options:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814141040

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814127164

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814131022


That 6200 is not just cheaper, it's also a decent card, unlike any geforce fx.

[antitype]

Anyone else want to confirm that? I was going on the nVidia endorsements I'd seen earlier in this thread, and so far I'm not disappointed. It seems to run everything I want to play for now just fine at the highest resolution available, and often with the detail settings on medium to high. The only one of those that you [dongle] linked to at newegg that I'd want to buy would probably be the $50 BIOSTAR, but do I really need to when I've already got this one installed and running fine? Just to save $10 ($5 after shipping)? Please tell me why this line of nVidia cards was a total abortion.

Now, keep in mind that this is just a "getting me by" sort of thing, until I can afford to buy/build an entirely new and much more powerful PC — probably four or five months from now, if that. I'm not too worried about being able to play games like FEAR or whatever just yet.
_________________
antitype.livejournal.com | last.fm

[dhex]

the 5x series generally sucked, yes. i had a 5800 that worked ok enough, but had a lot of problems with anything that had to step down from a shader 2.0 format. (halo in particular)
_________________

[Six]

Well, I wouldn't say the 5200 is a great card by any means. My friend's rig - which is comparable to mine, but has a Radeon card from about the same period - apparently runs FEAR without a hitch.

That said, it's probably okay as a stopgap solution. I even got the Dark Messiah demo playing on mine, though Source games seem to be pretty forgiving as far as system specs go.

Glancing at your list of stuff to play up there, I don't think you'd have any trouble with most of those. Oblivion is probably no-go, though. It was unplayable on my PC, though strangely the intro ran fine on like one-sixteenth of the screen.

[GSL]

So if you're one of those ultra-hardcore PC gamers that just has to run with the top-of-the-line everything, sure, return the FX5200.

If you're of a more practical mind, keep it.

You mention that you're going to want to build a better PC in a few months anyways; at that point to do things right you're probably going to want a motherboard with PCIe and a graphics card that will take full advantage of it. So why spend a ton of money on a fast card for a dead format like AGP? I'm still running with my FX5200 and granted, it could be much better, but it works just fine until I can pony up the money to get a new PCIe card (my motherboard has slots for both). As mentioned before, the Half-Life 2 engine is amazing in its ability to scale and work with various hardware, and with that processor you'll definitely be able to run it. But seriously, get some more RAM--that will help you much more than a shiny new graphics card will at this point. 512 should be a bare minimum, with a gig being even better--again though, if you're looking to upgrade keep in mind you don't want to spend a ton of money.

The first time I played Half-Life 2 it was on an 866Mhz Pentium 3 with 512MB RAM and this very same FX5200. It ran between 15 and 20 FPS with some heavy engine tweaking, but I did play the game to completion and thoroughly enjoyed it. Now I've upgraded to a 2MHz Athlon64 and 1GB RAM, and the game runs at a steady 50+ FPS with this same videocard. Sure, I can't do HDR lighting or anything like that, but it doesn't bother me much. In all reality, the card isn't bad--it's not the best, obviously, but it'll certainly get you by.

[antitype]

Yeah, Greatsaintlouis, you've pretty much got it. Really, this is just so I can actually play the game. And going by the first few hours (the intro sequence leading up to the hilariously botched teleportation was ... well, I was grinning ear to ear (and yeah, I was going to finish HL1 first, but HL2 just sucked me right in — I couldn't even stop until I got stuck at this part where I'm trying to figure out how to open a gate for my little hovercraft)).

Anyway, so far my only complaint would be the long load times. The framerate stays pretty steadily smooth (not sure what f/s, exactly, but I'm sure it's at least 30), except for those instances where all hell is breaking loose and tons of barrels are exploding or a fucking helicopter swoops down in my face.

I'm quite certain already that this is a game I will be playing more than once, so I can enjoy it all over again with visuals absolutely maxed out once I've got that shiny new PC. For now, I'm just thrilled to be playing it at all!
_________________
antitype.livejournal.com | last.fm

[dongle]

Well, another thing to consider is that whether you're running windows or linux, you're going to stress your videocard with aero or beryl within a couple months.

Also, as a person with some Ashkenazi blood in me, i feel it's just /wrong/ to pay $60 for a card that's so much shittier than a $40 6200.

[antitype]

[Ethoscapade]

nvidia 5x are pretty bad the same way radeon x series are.

you would do a hell of a lot better with like a 6600 for not much more money at all.

[dongle]

[antitype]

Alright, so you've convinced me. I'll order the 6200A (A for Aero? (and by the way, it's $55 after shipping, not $40)) now and return this FX 5200 after christmas.

Thanks for the advice and information!

For now, I'll just keep on playing. I'm pretty sure that HL2 is now my favorite PC game of all time (surpassing X-Com: UFO Defense) — no hyperbole — and possibly competing with Ico/SotC for the my favorite videogame of any format. It is just stuffed full of moments that I could call some of the greatest moments I've experienced in videogames (and iconic imagery like the looming Citadel releasing hundreds or thousands of camera drones as Barney remarks that he's never seen it lit up like that before (and the way that characters look at you and make such beautiful gestures and expressions)), but in a way that seems to go beyond being "moments in videogames" — even beyond the cinematic experience, with everything going on around you. It's a real tour de force.
_________________
antitype.livejournal.com | last.fm

[antitype]

So, the 6200 came in the mail today! I've installed it and holy shit, it makes a BIG difference. Thanks for convincing me, dongle!
_________________
antitype.livejournal.com | last.fm

[simplicio]

hey, piggybacking on a graphics card thread, and hoping for some residual dongle-ist wisdoms!

i'm currently running a radeon 9800 (on an MSI K8N Neo Platinum, with an AMD64 3200+ and 2GB ram). I originally thought this card would last me several years and I'd get a new one, but then PCI-E happened and getting a new one increasingly seems to involve a new motherboard on the side. So, while not hoping for future-proof by any means, is there some miracle future-resistant AGP card still out there?

[dongle]

[dhex]

i predict - and this is probably wishful thinking on my part to some degree - that DX10 won't really be an issue until well into 2008/2009, when dx10 exclusive games start coming out.
_________________

[antitype]

And even then it should only be a problem if you haven't got Windows Vista, right?

From what I've read, sounds like you're being reasonable enough.
_________________
antitype.livejournal.com | last.fm

[dhex]

vista is going to be an issue for me because of my soundcard. i don't think maudio is going to release 64bit drivers for an older card. i may be wrong, but i'd have to basically build a second computer to be able to play dx10 games unless i get a new soundcard, which i'd rather not do as i like mine quite a bit.
_________________