Computers & Electronics

Affordable video card for HL2?

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  • Nov 9th, 2004 12:18 am
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Newbie
Oct 16, 2003
2 posts

Affordable video card for HL2?

Hi all,

I've got my pre-order in for Half Life 2, and I figure it's time to update my GeForce3 to something a little faster.

Any recommendations? I've been an NVidia fan in the past, but ATI seems to be coming on pretty strong lately.

So far, the video card shoot-out articles I've seen are all comparing the $500+ cards, which are a little hard to justify. Ideally would like to spend around $150-$175. Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Darren.
11 replies
Deal Fanatic
User avatar
Jun 11, 2001
9475 posts
1610 upvotes
'float' around the Hot Deals section or BST section... I managed to snag a ATI Radeon 9700 Pro OEM for $130+tx. Mind you only like 5 or so were available at the store. You should be able to snag a Ti4200 for around $75 or so on ebay.ca. Should be able to run HL2 at decent speed and graphics. I needed sometime to tide me over until I can convince myself I 'need' a 6800GT or whatever comes out later :)
...zzz...zzz...zzz...

www.heatware.com
Sr. Member
Nov 30, 2003
511 posts
79 upvotes
Edmonton
I'd suggest a used 9700pro or 9800pro.

My 9700pro is doing fairly well for CS:Source. Only map that gets unacceptably low fps for me is de_aztec. For all the other maps i've only seen it dip down into the 30s. Heck, I found the smoke in CS 1.6 to lag me worse then anything i've experienced in CS:Source minus aztec.

This is at 1280x1024, medium texture level (cuz i couldn't see the difference between high while playing), but max everything else and 4x AF.
Deal Fanatic
Aug 15, 2003
8946 posts
446 upvotes
Toronto
lazybum131 wrote:I'd suggest a used 9700pro or 9800pro.

My 9700pro is doing fairly well for CS:Source. Only map that gets unacceptably low fps for me is de_aztec. For all the other maps i've only seen it dip down into the 30s. Heck, I found the smoke in CS 1.6 to lag me worse then anything i've experienced in CS:Source minus aztec.

This is at 1280x1024, medium texture level (cuz i couldn't see the difference between high while playing), but max everything else and 4x AF.
9800 Pro.

How can you lag in CS 1.6? That game can run smoothly on 60fps on a Radeon 7500!

Anyways, Im a on 9800 Pro 256 modded to XT @ 432/382, it's rock solid!
Deal Fanatic
User avatar
Dec 19, 2003
7931 posts
48 upvotes
Burnaby
anything under 9700 Pro will not fair very well in HL2 at 1024x768
Ti4200 needs the 128mb to do ok in lower res

here is a perfect guide for you to read
http://theinquirer.net/?article=19405

and 9600 Pro is a waste of money IMO

i would save up for 9800 Pro
Sr. Member
Nov 30, 2003
511 posts
79 upvotes
Edmonton
MtX wrote:9800 Pro.

How can you lag in CS 1.6? That game can run smoothly on 60fps on a Radeon 7500!
No idea! Check the huge thread on the Steam forums. For seemingly no reason CS 1.6 would lag on systems even with very good specs. Never could figure it out...for my case it would only happen with smoke nades, perfectly fine with anything else.
Sr. Member
Nov 30, 2003
511 posts
79 upvotes
Edmonton
MtX wrote:ati_subdiv 0
ati_npatch 0
:rolleyes: Had those set the day CS added support for truform. And no, that has nothing to do with the problem, and i've experienced it on three seperate systems and several clean installs of windows. Again, no idea why it happens cuz i've also worked on 5 different systems of various specs that didn't have the problem.

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