What video cards can run the game?

[pappy646]

I need to get a new card and would like to know which card will be good for HL2. Which one will take advantage of all the new game engine abilities..

I have a 4200 now.....

 

[Shuzer]

DX7+ cards.

That's minimum. If you want the best performance for your buck, I'd say the Radeon 9800 Pro. Best performance, Radeon X800 Pro/PE-XT

 

[Ansur]

You should indeed go for an ATI card.

 

[sHm0zY]

any direct x 9 suported cards will run it great

 

[Shuzer]

any direct x 9 suported cards will run it great

Not the FX series of nVidia cards. Anything below the FX5900 will suck, royally, in DX9 mode.

 

[Ansur]

That's what is said, though I doubt it.

 

[sHm0zY]

Not the FX series of nVidia cards. Anything below the FX5900 will suck, royally, in DX9 mode.

Meh i dont have an FX card so whatever.

 

[Shuzer]

That's what is said, though I doubt it.

The FX series of cards has crap shader performance. This is fact. Shader model 2.0 does NOT run well on the cards, at all.

The cards will run fine in DX8 mode. As it'll use the older shader model. HL2 = shader intensive

 

[EC]

lol, as opposed to half-way having an FX card? ATi NVidia hybrid!

 

[DarkStar]

I don't know if this is against the rules or not but...

My Geforce Ti4200 ran the stolen build really well. I know that I shouldn't base my judgement on a pre-alpha build of the game but it seriously ran really smoothly. I was way surprised. Anyway, I just upgraded to a Geforce 6800 GT so I don't think I'll be having any problems with the finished version.

 

[Sparta]

Yeah the Geforce 6800 is the most decent Nvidia card to come out in about 2 years

 

[pappy646]

Thanks for the suggestions....I have one more..

Does it really matter having 128 or 256 MB?

 

[Ansur]

I don't know if this is against the rules or not but...

It is, I think

 

[Sparta]

Thanks for the suggestions....I have one more..

Does it really matter having 128 or 256 MB?

Not that i'm aware of
Though if i were you i'd get a 256mb one, for Doom 3.

 

[Shuzer]

I don't know if this is against the rules or not but...

It's not against the rules to discuss the technical aspects of the stolen build. But it is frowned upon.

Anyhow, the stolen build really isn't a DX9.. er.. "game." It's got very limited shaders, it's missing textures everywhere, it's not properly optimized.. it's just.. not polished in the slightest. That's why it runs decently on most every card people try it out with

 

[Malfunction]

Well, if you have the money, I'd go for the 256mb card, just because according to Gabe, HL2 is probably the closest game to fill up all of that 128mb, so the 256mb should be a nice safety precaution for the future.

 

[DarkStar]

^^ Doom 3 will actually be using all 256 megs of a cards memory. There's even support in Doom 3 for 512 MB cards! Although no such cards yet exist.

 

[Malfunction]

....wow.....though at 1600x1200 (is that the right resolution?), even an x800 XT can get up to somewhere around 40-70 according to those benchmarks.

 

[Ansur]

Thats a damn nice card then

 

[Malfunction]

Well, don't take it from me, have a look at those benchies yourself. Though the 6800s outperformed the x800s, you have to admit, at that resolution, wow.

 

[Mr Neutron]

The best bargain option now is a 9800pro (which is worth the extra money over the non-pro). You could get a ~$100-range card, but then you'd just be upgrading a year sooner, and you won't have the nice performance in the meantime. In the high-range, the 6800GT is better than a x800, especially for opengl (i.e. Doom3) and especially if you expect to use it for more than two years (so you'll have ps3.0 support). The x800xt, though, ps3.0 and doom3 performance aside, will serve you better for the big up-coming directx games like STALKER.

I think the advantage of ps3.0 is supposed to be mostly in performance optimization. Games will use the flow-control of ps3.0 to make their ps2.0 shaders run faster (this is the situation with Far Cry--and so far the performance boost give Nvidia the lead, but not a very significant one). I doubt we'll see any game-feature requiring ps3.0 until late 2005, and there won't be any game requiring ps3.0 for another two years (if not later).

 

[Asus]

The GF4 4200 should run HL2 pretty well, perhaps hitting 40 FPS in DX8.
If you want more FPS, higher resolution, DX9 or want to use filter options like AA/AF then you should upgrade. I would highly recommend the 9800Pro.

(this is the situation with Far Cry--and so far the performance boost give Nvidia the lead, but not a very significant one).

Actually figured the average frame rate over Xbitlabs review and the 6800U had about 62 Avg FPS while the X800XT PE had 66.6 Avg FPS. It's more or less a tie but def not a slight win for the 6800.

 

[VeZ]

Thanks for the suggestions....I have one more..

Does it really matter having 128 or 256 MB?

future games will require more memory

 

[Ansur]

future games will require more memory

... though atm it doesn't really makes much difference.

 

[crabcakes66]

If i were buying a card now. I would go with a new-gen 256 meg card.

The 9800pro is awsome if you have been running a GF for the past 4 years but save a little more cash and buy a 6800GT or something. You will be glad you did in the long run....as you will comfortably be playing games for another 4 years

Only now with these new-gen of cards does the extra 128megs of memory actaully matter....becuase they are the only ones fast enough to make use of it. Even the 9800XT(or 5950) cant really make full use of its extra memory.

 

[Ansur]

If i were buying a card now. I would go with a new-gen 256 meg card.

The 9800pro is awsome if you have been running a GF for the past 4 years but save a little more cash and buy a 6800GT or something. You will be glad you did in the long run....as you will comfortably be playing games for another 4 years

Have you seen the Unreal 3 tech demo ?
Start saving for a whopping 512MB gfx card

 

[crabcakes66]

Doom3 and possibly HL2 can make use of 512 NOW......

...and considering I can play both of those games just fine with a 64meg card. I fail to see your point.

Do you doubt a 6800/x800 will be able to run unreal 3 with decent settings?

 

[Ansur]

Simply put: yes
For the lower settings they will be fine though.

 

[Ansur]

Remember that the game won't be finished until 2007 or something like that.
Think of the gfx cards from 2001. These will be able to render the source engine, though not in its pure glory.

 

[crabcakes66]

Isnt that what I said?


I guess our definitions of "decent" are very differant.

 

[Ansur]

I guess they are