Question about running Half-Life 2 maxed out

S

SpartanEvolved

SpartanEvolved
Since recently obtaining a computer for just me, myself, and I; upgrading it a little to better play my favorite series is in mind.

I just want to know 1 thing

-What graphics card would be a good choice to run this game maxed out?

I'm going to upgrade to 2GB of RAM, but I'm not sure on the graphics card. Preferablly, I only want to buy one card rather than SLI or Crossfire stuff, but if getting an SLI or Crossfire card would be a better or cheaper decision I would do it,
 
As of now, it's better to get the best possible card you can afford rather than SLI/Crossfire two lesser cards together.

Even something as old as a 9800XT can run HL2 amazingly well. What's your budget? What slot type are we looking at here (AGP, PCI-E)?
 
For $500 right now, you could probably get a dual-core processor, motherboard, and 7900 GT.

Apparently the 7600 GT is pretty nice as well, and would leave you with more money with which to upgrade to a DX10 card.

Keep in mind that there probably won't ever be another new AGP card, leaving PCI-E the only way to upgrade in the future.
 
um.. I think my computer has it maxed out.  Maybe not resolution wise as I run it 1024x768 res.... BUT... graphics / detail wise it is.

I have a All In Wonder Pro 9700 128 meg, 1 gig ram, P4 2.4 Ghz processor.  I have it running pretty smoothly.  NOW... I cannot jump in and out of the program very well... and I cannot have other applications open while using it.

I am going to beef my computer up to 4 gig of ram soon... SO... I should be good to go for a couple more years on this comp.  It is 3 years old... and not really showing it.

Bv :hat
 
I heard with 4 gigs of RAM and can actually bog your computer down. True? I don't know. But that's what I heard.

Anyways, I hear they are going to overhaul the engine with Episode 2, so I may wait to upgrade until after that.
 
It is true, but as far as real world performance I'm not sure anybody would notice. Basically, if you use all 4 ram slots you have to run at 2T, which is slower than 1T. For a gaming pc your best bet is to run two 1gb sticks in dual channel mode.
 
Yeap. If you look in your BIOS you should see your RAM timings-if you're not using all your RAM slots it should be set at 1T. I'm not exactly sure of the technical meaning, I just know 2T is slower than 1T :)
 
^I believe that's only for AMD processors, has something to do with the on-die memory controller.

XP itself slows down with 4 GB of RAM, Vista with 4 GB RAM will be much more gratifying and will actually see a performance improvement.
 
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