Half Life 2 smokes on my system!!

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Y

yeehii

Distinguished
Apr 17, 2004
17
0
18,510
And I am running it on a Pentium III 1000/133!

I got this cpu years and years ago. At the time the cpu decision was really: do i go with a tried and tested cpu which has benefited from all the evolutions of the product cycle, or do i go with the brand new chip, the earliest pentium 4.

I am amazed that this cpu still keeps putting in good service. It is working with 1 gig of RAM and a geforce3 Ti 200. The graphics on this very latest of games are running smoothly at high resolution and I don't know how long it will be till i have to wait for the next big thing. In Rome Total War my big concern is how to *slow down* the battles, cause I can't do things quickly enough! :)

It must be a tribute also to the game programmers that enabled the game to run on an older system.

When I think about upgrading now, (and i have been daydreaming about an AMD 939 SLI system) I wonder what is the point as there doesn't seem to be a game on the horizon that can throw anything at my 'decrepeit' machine which it can't handle.

:)
 
I suspect if you tried HL2 on my system - which isn't <i>that</i> high end really - You'd notice the difference.

You've just conditioned yourself - I used to find doom playable on a 386 16Mhz, until I played it on a 486/pentium later.... :tongue:

EDIT:
Forgot to mention: my system is a 2.3Ghz Athlon XP, 1Gb of RAM and a 9800Pro :wink:

---
"Sex without love is an empty experience...
But as empty experiences go, it's one of the best" - Woody Allen<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by ChipDeath on 01/27/05 06:59 PM.</EM></FONT></P>
 
yeah, you got a really nice system there.
v sensible looking choices, should last you a v v long time.

It must help that i can't *see* what i am missing. But apart from some eye candy i am still amazed, particularly at the 1280x1024 res giving smooth performance. I couldn't believe it when i tried it!

The other thing that it makes me wonder about is how i have been so tempted to spend like thousands of dollars to "get HL2 to work". That marketing is very effective.

But anyway, I still want a fast system... hehehe! :)
 
Halo, or fartcry may be a better test.
You could put together a system that plays those with amazing graphics, for about $500, if you used some of the parts from your old system. Even at that price, most of the cost would be a good graphics card. You can go cheaper, but what's the point?
 
I know exactly how you feel; up until 3 months ago I didn't know what I was missing either. I upgraded from a Geforce4ti4600 to a 6800, and the detail levels of going to a DirectX7 to DirectX9 card alone were remarkable. Then I discovered I could enable FSAA and anisotropic filtering, and my whole world was changed. It was like playing games all over again. I even dug out Quake 3 Arena just to see it with AA/AF. If you want to avoid being bitten by the upgrade bug, don't go to a friend's house to see how current games are, "supposed" to look, becuase you won't want to go back to the way things were.
In one of the HL2 previews/reviews from www.firingsquad.com, they had screenshots of directx versions 7, 8, and 9. Sorry I don't have the exact link but you should check it out.
 
I can see the difference on similar rigs with one being a trinitron monitor with a 9500P, and the other a regular boring monitor with a 9600np. Those are both dx9 cards too...

With a basis for comparison you notice.

</font color=red><i><font color=red>GOD</font color=red> <font color=blue>BLESS </font color=blue><font color=red>AMERICA
 
I saw the title, expecting to read a rave post about someone with a Athlon FX or P4EE and wanted to reply "it runs pretty okay on my XP3000+ with GF4" 😀

As for rome total war being too fast.. hu ? here is a hint: let your artillery use fire arrow, and FPS collapses to a slideshow. Terrific game though (even though the AI is sometimes way too stupid. If your city is under siege, do a sally forth before the AI has built siege equipment, lure them close to the walls of your city and trash them with arrows.. just too easy 🙁

= The views stated herein are my personal views, and not necessarily the views of my wife. =
 
Hey, sure you've seen this <A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2330&p=1" target="_new">HL2 CPU Performance bit </A>, but in case not, it's a good read. Besides the AMD/Intel comparisons, I like the memory bandwidth/timings comparisons as well as the cpu scaling charts. Only thing I didn't like was seeing how he bashed my 9800 pro in his conclusion :tongue: . quote - "If you happen to have an older Radeon 9600/9700/9800 based card, then even an Athlon 64 2800+ will be overkill for your GPU." But it explains why on my own testing why with a 9800 pro there was little difference between a P4 2.6C and an A64 3000+. Running toms and anands timedemos, it varied from less than 1 fps on prison_05 to about 9 fps in coast_05, at the 1280x1024 highest, no AA/AF settings I game at. But with the X850XT, the A64 3000+ beats all P4's except the 3.8GHz 570. I didn't realize just how much the 9800 pro holds back this 3000+ winchester in a game I thought was heavily cpu bound.

<A HREF="http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=3400555" target="_new"> My</A>
<A HREF="http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=8268935" target="_new">Gamer</A>
 
In one of the HL2 previews/reviews from www.firingsquad.com, they had screenshots of directx versions 7, 8, and 9. Sorry I don't have the exact link but you should check it out.
Click to expand...

If someone could find this I'd like to see it.

</font color=red><i><font color=red>GOD</font color=red> <font color=blue>BLESS </font color=blue><font color=red>AMERICA
 
Best one I have seen is over at Anand and linked below. Look at the <A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2281&p=2" target="_new">IQ comparison page</A>, mousing over the water scene to really see what a DX 9 card ads to the game. Besides water reflections, a DX8 card like the GF4 Ti's look very good. The DX7 path on the other hand loses alot of the games beauty.

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2281" target="_new">http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2281</A>


<A HREF="http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=3400555" target="_new"> My</A>
<A HREF="http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=8268935" target="_new">Gamer</A>
 
Wow. The water is definitely a huge improvement. I loved that section on the hovercraft!

</font color=red><i><font color=red>GOD</font color=red> <font color=blue>BLESS </font color=blue><font color=red>AMERICA
 
Yeah that hovercraft/airboat thing was alot of fun for sure. I can see myself replaying HL2 single player again, especially if I ever upgrade to a new card making 4XAA possible.

But I can't imagine playing HL2 on a GF4MX or GF2Ti DX7 card. Probably still fun, but not the same experience by any means. Maybe as long as you don't see it on a buddies high end system, it still looks good to the DX7 player.



<A HREF="http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=3400555" target="_new"> My</A>
<A HREF="http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=8268935" target="_new">Gamer</A>
 
I'm sorry that I can't find the exact link, and I'll keep looking, but until then, here is a more extreme example.
http://www.firingsquad.com/media/gallery_index.asp/244

This is a gallery of Doom 3 running on a Voodoo2 card. Now I realize that that card predates DirectX7 or even DirectX5, but it does prove my point, which is that newer hardware that supports newer graphics APIs will allow more realistic gameplay at the same FPS.
 
Half Life 2 blows on any system. Graphics are great but the game is not that much fun to play. Gimme DOOM3 or FarCry anyday, either of which will cause that P3 to blow!

Abit IS7 - 3.0C @ 3.6ghz - Mushkin PC4000 (2 X 512) - Sapphire 9800Pro - TT 420 watt Pure Power
Samsung 120gb ATA-100 - Maxtor 40gb ATA - 100
Sony DRU-510A - Yellowtail Merlot
 
Got enough memory? It plays easy on my XP-3000+ back-up with a 9600XT-256. I don't run it at 1280 X 1024 tho. What's your Aquamark3 score?


Abit IS7 - 3.0C @ 3.6ghz - Mushkin PC4000 (2 X 512) - Sapphire 9800Pro - TT 420 watt Pure Power
Samsung 120gb ATA-100 - Maxtor 40gb ATA - 100
Sony DRU-510A - Yellowtail Merlot
 
sorry, i cant resist

hl2 is 10 times better than doom 3 in every way imaginable. far cry is better than hl2 though, and infinately better than doom3.

this is my boomstick!
 
Doom III got boring quite quickly.

FartCry was a great laugh, and definitely had the 'wow' factor more than the other two - for me anyway. I would have preferred if they'd skipped the evil monsters angle and just stuck to the mercs. I think staying realistic would have suited the engine a bit more (just my opinion).

DoomIII had very good graphics all around, but it remains to be seen if the engine can do a decent expansive environment. It's current performance in dimly lit corridors suggests it would stuggle with huge outdoor areas with loads of detail - but who knows.

HL2 had great graphics on the characters, and most of the in-game objects, but I thought the world detail was a little lacking here and there. Just a little inconsistent - like they rushed a few bits here and there.

Overall? The Physics in HL2 made it a real blast to play (knocking combine soldiers off the pier using a huge magnetic crane and a shipping crate... <i>that</i> was hilarious... :smile: ), so that gets my vote for most fun.

Far Cry has ludicrously beautiful environments though, so I'll give that the graphics award.

Doom III was a reasonable tech demo, although the engine is perhaps a little slow for much of today's common hardware. As a game I find it boring.

---
"Sex without love is an empty experience...
But as empty experiences go, it's one of the best" - Woody Allen
 
HL2 is almost work to play. One puzzle after another. "Good evening Dr. Falken. How about a nice game of chess"?

Abit IS7 - 3.0C @ 3.6ghz - Mushkin PC4000 (2 X 512) - Sapphire 9800Pro - TT 420 watt Pure Power
Samsung 120gb ATA-100 - Maxtor 40gb ATA - 100
Sony DRU-510A - Yellowtail Merlot
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom