Cheap Card for Halo PC at 1920x1200

[PR3DAT0R]

Hi guys what would be the cheapest possible graphics Card that would run Halo PC at 1920x1200 with everything maxed out?

 

[prozac26]

PCI-E or AGP?

 

[PR3DAT0R]

PCI-E sorry I forgot to mention it.

 

[Xazax310]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130073

There you go.

 

[cleeve]

I don't think a 7600 GT would pull off 1900x1200 by a long shot.

At the very least you should be looking at a $250 X1950 XT or a $300 8800 GTS,,,

 

[prozac26]

Yea, but he's running Halo PC, which probably doesn't need a X1950XT or 8800GTS.

 

[3Ball]

I play the game and I can tell you that if you want to max everything out and run at that high of a res you will need at least an X1950Pro! My friends X800XL with a slight OC @ 1280x1024 and settings at max will drop in high amount servers and intense areas, so with an X1950Pro I would suspect you could overcome those problems! But I could be wrong. My laptop specs are X1600 Mobility, Intel Core 2 Duo Mobile T5600 @ 1.86ghz w/ 2mb cache, 1.50gb of 667mhz memory and I have to run medium to low settings and 1280x768 on my monitor to have playable frame rates, but it still slows down and well obviously isnt even close to the experience as my desktop offers.

Best,

3Ball

 

[cleeve]

I thought Halo PC was hard on videocards because it was so poorly optimized for the PC.

Well, if an X1950 PRO or 7900 GS works, that'd definitely save a couple $$...

 

[PR3DAT0R]

This game came out 4 years ago it can't be that bad.

 

[torque79]

yes it can, it's an extremely badly programmed game for the pc. You need a very powerful PC to max out the settings and run such an exceptionally high resolution, because it could have been better programmed by monkeys.

 

[truromeo4juliet]

I thought Halo PC was hard on videocards because it was so poorly optimized for the PC.

Well, if an X1950 PRO or 7900 GS works, that'd definitely save a couple $$...

he's right... Halo PC was basically taking the source code for the xbox version and re-compliling it to be windows compatible, without cleaning the code up to make it windows optimized..

i played through the single player campaign after countless blue-screens and unexpected terminations, and then I quit. Hope the patches fixed that issue.

 

[TSIMonster]

My x850 plays HALO at 1680x1050 all maxed out. Avg of 70 FPS, min of 40 FPS....

It is the first system in my signature. X850s can be had for less then $100 now.

 

[PR3DAT0R]

well I used to run this game a few years ago on my XFX 6800 GS in high settings at 1280x1024 without a hiccup. I dont know how big an impact running it at 1920x1200 vs 1280x1024 will have on the card but im shure something like this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814121548R would run it.

 

[3Ball]

Everyone has different tollerences I suppose, because if mine was dropping from 70 - 40 I would lower the settings to stay above 60 for as long as I could. My laptop does on with the exception of when I zoom in far with the snipe when alot of people are there, but I can somewhat deal with that!

Best,

3Ball

 

[Lionhardt]

dude, i have a pentium 3 256 ram, fx5500 and it plays high with a small bit of lag...


7600gt= fine.

even 6600= fine

anything will work.

 

[cleeve]

And you're playing at 1920x1200?...

 

[darkangelism]

It should do halo at that res fine, i did it, and i have done with halflife 2 which is more demanding.

 

[billdcat4]

Halo is a tough game. My (now deceased) X800SE 128mb would sometimes stutter at 1024x768, while my friend's FX5200 would do just fine at 800x600.

I would personally go for the 7900GS. It offers a lot of power for only $140 after MIR. That card should be able to play Halo at HIGH at a resolution of 1680x1050. While resolution is nice, you most probably wont be able to tell the difference between 1280x800 , 1680x1050, and 1920x1200 unless you squint at the monitor the whole time.

So, from personal experience, I would suggest the 7900gs as a poweful and budget card that can be easily overclocked to 7900gt levels.

good luck

 

[Lionhardt]

dude, my friends 6600 with a p4 3.4 ghz plays it at 2060 x 1560 or w/e fine, no lag with tons of effects.

so there.

 

[PR3DAT0R]

based on your suggestions I've narrowed it down to 3 cards that are in my price range let me know what you guys think here they are.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814121548R
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814125028
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814125022
remember I want to go the cheapest route possible this card is only temporary.

 

[cleeve]

dude, my friends 6600 with a p4 3.4 ghz plays it at 2060 x 1560 or w/e fine, no lag with tons of effects.

Tons of effects... are you saying maxed out?

I'm having trouble believing that.

 

[MrCommunistGen]

dude, my friends 6600 with a p4 3.4 ghz plays it at 2060 x 1560 or w/e fine, no lag with tons of effects.

so there.

Umm... ok.

-mcg

 

[TSIMonster]

Everyone has different tollerences I suppose, because if mine was dropping from 70 - 40 I would lower the settings to stay above 60 for as long as I could. My laptop does on with the exception of when I zoom in far with the snipe when alot of people are there, but I can somewhat deal with that!

Best,

3Ball

To be honest, in Halo, once your above 35, the difference is unnoticeable completely. With my x850, it would only drop to 40 on all rocket maps with tons of explosions. Even then, you couldn't notice a slow down at all. Keep in mind, this was before I overclocked the card. I haven't played since the overclock, and now the x850 is gone (sold)

I could play Halo on the onboard ATI 1150 on my ECS board at medium settings with 35fps (1024x768) lol

 

[cleeve]

based on your suggestions I've narrowed it down to 3 cards that are in my price range let me know what you guys think here they are.

Out of those cards, the X1600 XT is the fastest.

But the X1650 XT is MUCH faster, for about the same cash:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814161054

 

[3Ball]

Im tellin ya, you have a very high tolerance for "lag" in you game because I remember when the game first came out I had the gforce FX5600 256mb, with 1gb of ram and an AMD Athlon XP 2600+ and It had to run lower settings and 1024x768 on a CRT monitor. I bought an ATI 9600 Pro 256mb to play it better because at the time the ATI's were running the Direct X in that game much better as many of the FX series had problems back then. I stand by my first idea of the X1950Pro and may consider an X800XL because of my friends machine and if the OP bumps up the res then he may be ok, but I could not go any lower than an X800 Pro or X800XL to run the game and I still say the OP should go with X1950 Pro. Hope this helps!

Best,

3Ball