hl2 - loading times..

[dv6cougar]

I just built a pc to play games with, the stats are:

3.0 P4
1 gig of ddr ram
Radeon 9550 Vid Card (256m, 400 mhz memory.. forget the rest)

now the loading times are really, really bad for single player and sometimes it fails to load the game itself... this game requires so much power.

anyway, what would help the most (since i can return the parts..) a video card with more memory (600 mhz, i think the other one has) or another gig of memory?

if have ot do both, i can probably do that too, but i'd have to do the video card first and the memory in a month or two.

any help would be appreciated

 

[dv6cougar]

i'm also told now, that it may be my hard disk that's really slow...

that's a
Hitachi Deskstar 7K250, HDS722516-VLAT80, 160GB, 3,5", 8MB

 

[Tarkus]

i think that PC deserves a new vid card... i can't even seem to remember reading anything about a "radeon 9550", so i guess that's a low end card...

 

[Hectic Glenn]

Lay that card to rest anby buy a 9800 pro 256mb or something...watch the difference.

 

[dv6cougar]

well, i'm in Denmark, so getting a 9800 Pro 256MB isn't something you just go do, cost a bit too much, unfortunately.

but here's hte card I did buy
http://www.prc-data.dk/ny/ProdFrame.asp?Produktid=40807026

perhaps I should upgrade to this one?
http://www.prc-data.dk/ny/ProdFrame.asp?Produktid=41181497

that's about $30-40 more, where as the 9800 Pro 128mb is $150 or so more.

 

[ericms]

9600 xt.

 

[ZoFreX]

Getting a new video card is reccommended but it won't help loading times. The 9550 is playable with hl2 though. That hard disk doesn't look too slow, and your rig isn't exactly low spec either. Have you tried defragging? Also, can you give more details on your cpu, cache size etc?

Also, read this:
http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?t=62067

 

[dv6cougar]

thanks ZoFrex.. i'll read the thread.

i dunno about the cach size and all that? I have the box tho.. let me read it
here we are...

800mhz FSB
1 mb L2 Cache (1mb, doesnt' sound like much... not that i know anything about it)

edit:

could it be my bios is set wrong? i read an article about this and set the settings i could find as best I could (it had a list.., let me find the link... http://www.racelinecentral.com/GamersBios.html way at hte bottom there..) and that did help a little but not alot. ALot of those functions were not found in my bios. and the AGP Aperture could only be set to 256, not 512 (half of my ram)

 

[Sharrd]

If you've downclocked your processor to 1,6GHz it's a problem. Or if you're using 159,8 of your available 160 gigabytes, it's a problem. I'm wondering what you think of as long loading times, though.

 

[dv6cougar]

If you've downclocked your processor to 1,6GHz it's a problem. Or if you're using 159,8 of your available 160 gigabytes, it's a problem. I'm wondering what you think of as long loading times, though.

doubt i've down clocked the processor, it got a bit faster when i did some stuff in bios, didn't get slower. besides, opening Photoshop and such doesnt take long at all...

long loading times is 30 - a minute in game and 1-2 minutes to start the game. my buddy made a video of his half life loading and that loaded much faster...

 

[Bobcat]

doubt i've down clocked the processor, it got a bit faster when i did some stuff in bios, didn't get slower. besides, opening Photoshop and such doesnt take long at all...

long loading times is 30 - a minute in game and 1-2 minutes to start the game. my buddy made a video of his half life loading and that loaded much faster...

Just curius, but are you running on a clean rig? Spyware/virus/defrag/clutter - clean rig?

You don't have a billion things running in the background?

By the way, a 9800 Pro isn't expensive.
http://www.edbpriser.dk/Listproduct...ueval1914=28199&True26090=&Trueval26090=98064

 

[dv6cougar]

it should be clean... it's a clean version of windows with a few things installed... first thing was my antivirus program, so that shouldn't be it. as for what's runnin' in the background I have Antivirus, ATi driver software, Stream and Firewall (it's nortens internet secuirty, so firewall and virus run as one, sort of) and that's it. but seeing as you have to be online to play this game, i really don't want to de-activate those 2 programs.

well, it's not expensive persay, but for me it is, seeing as i only make x2 that a month

 

[Ckabusk]

this game requires so much power.

LMAO! Look at doom 3, it requires alot of power than HL2 does! But Doom 3 can run game itself flawless, faster load, and etc. What s wrong with HL2, they still need alot of time to complete this game? They are still developing alot of stuff for HL2 that dont even released yet. Valve just showed us how unprofessional they are. But Valve did good job than most game industries, though.

 

[dv6cougar]

i agree Ckabusk...

i actually downloaded a demo of Doom 3 and that doesn't quite run so well, but it does run. but then again, the game is so dark, i could barely see what was happening anyway....

 

[sublidieminal]

w-r-o-n-g forum.

 

[dv6cougar]

w-r-o-n-g forum.

sorry, wasn't sure where to put it.

 

[duckmoose]

NOOOO! Don't listen to the misguided/outdated advice about the 9800pro! For pretty much less money (and often with a free copy of Doom 3) you can get the 6600GT.

I'm not gonna go into how great of a deal it is, but go to tomshardware.com and look up its review. It kicked the 9800s ass, for less money. I got one and am VERY satisifed

Just to brag I play HL2 at 1280x1024 with 4xAA, Trillinear (on 1280x1024 I CANNOT see a difference with AF on... if there is one it's so slight that I can't pinpoint it... so whatever fps it causes me to lose isn't worth it) and maximum settings with very smooth framerates. It's excellent performance. Don't feel like citing frames per second, all I can say is very smooth. On a $190 card, 3.0ghz P4, 1gig DDR.

6600GT has awesome 3.0 pixel shader support. 9800 DOES NOT. Next-gen games beware.

Anyway, don't go with the 9800 like every other schlep. Do a little research beforehand. (6600gt rivaled 6800gt on far cry and doom 3 benchmarks... like 3fps short of it on far cry and 4-7fps short of it on doom3, consistently, pretty damn close in other games too but those are the most impressive).

EDIT:

MORE POWER TO THE MIDRANGE!
:farmer:

 

[Ownzed]

Get at least a 9800 Pro.

 

[duckmoose]

I am saying, there's no reason to get "at least" a 9800 Pro. It's not really less expensive than the 6600GT, for less performance. A good bit less.

Although it was a nice card for its generation, I will always be an Nvidia man.

Who else thinks the graphics on Nvidia just plain look better? Especially the newer ones with pixel shader 3.0 support, etc. (don't flame me, I know the purpose and application of pixel shaders 3.0).

EDIT: In fact, it is most often more than the 6600GT. Go figure, I guess they figure we're all dumbass sheep.

EDIT2: Er, grammar.

 

[Achilles]

I just built a pc to play games with, the stats are:

3.0 P4
1 gig of ddr ram
Radeon 9550 Vid Card (256m, 400 mhz memory.. forget the rest)

now the loading times are really, really bad for single player and sometimes it fails to load the game itself... this game requires so much power.

anyway, what would help the most (since i can return the parts..) a video card with more memory (600 mhz, i think the other one has) or another gig of memory?

if have ot do both, i can probably do that too, but i'd have to do the video card first and the memory in a month or two.

any help would be appreciated

You must have something wrong with your computer as i have:

AMD Athlon 2000+
1.67 GHz
1 GiG of DDR RAM
ATi Radeon 9550 128MB

and play the game with everything on high and load the game everytime within 15 secs (Except with JB's Physgun MOD). So it's had to see you having problems when you've got a much better system?

 

[dv6cougar]

i dunno what's up with it, but it's weird.

i doubt your loading it in 15 seconds but that's cool if you are...

i just timed it and i got 1:58 from windows to the main screen (new game, load game etc)

 

[ZoFreX]

A level load takes me 50 seconds on higest settings, which could be better considering. Buying a new graphics card ain't gonna help. Try disabling the "Real time scanner" in your antivirus program when you play. If you don't know how to do that, just disable the antivirus full stop when you play, just remember to turn it back on afterwards.