HL2 max specs

[UkGamer]

what do u think the max specs for hl2 would be , i mean to play it at full graphics and about 1280x1024 or 1024x768 and do u think my new machine could do it;
pentium 4 3.4ghz
256mb ati x600 pro pciexpress ( does video ram make miles of differance? )
1024ddr ram

[pop pop]

All the awsome numbers are here in text and great bar graphic glory.

http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041222/vga_charts-09.html

[UkGamer]

thanks for that but...

whats the differance between the red and the green bars?

also doesnt make sense to me in some of the benchmarks- the x600 256mb is outperformed by the 128mb?

what would be an ok framerate anyway about 30fps?

sorry for all the questions...

[hockey man]

what do the aberviations af,aa and others similar to it mean?

[pop pop]

I would have guessed that the red and green are just so you can differentiate what you're looking at at a glance. Mostly the Radeons are red and the nVideas are green with one exception, so maybe there's another reason--don't know.

As for
the x600 256mb is outperformed by the 128mb, thats what the benchmarks showed under that test configuration--different cards, different results. And the difference was only 0.3 FPS, so you wouldn't even be able to see it. You have to take benchmarks with a grain of salt and a little skeptism.

I'm not a hardcore gamer, but my guess is 30 FPS is about minimum.

As for the abreviations, likely AA is antialiasing (getting rid of the stair step look in curved lines). That takes more calcualtions and would be an indication of how the card performs. I don't know what AF is, maybe some gamer here does.

[Deagle]

Here's a short definition of AF from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anisotropic_filtering). As for HL 2 (or any games) getting 30FPS average is considered "playable". Anything less would starts to produce a "slideshow" effect, very annoying in First Person Shooter. :mad:

[pop pop]

So simply stated, AA and AF are are computationally intense methods of improving detail and realism. As such, testing graphics cards with and without AA and AF turned on provides some good insight into how a card performs under heavy computational loads.

Like I said, I'm not a hardcore gamer. But I am a hardcore combat fllight simmer. AA has always been important in that realm and now that I know what AF is, I know that it is too. Terrain, water, and cloud detail are what absolutely kills most graphics cards when running a really good combat flight sim.

[saphalline]

Under most normal games, the X600 series doesn't have enough raw power to make good use of 256MB of vid RAM. It's more of a novelty than anything else, but if you play games at high resolutions with lots of texture detail, then you'd see better fps numbers vs a 128MB version. On those benchmark results, don't be fooled by the miniscule 0.3 fps difference between the 256MB and 128MB versions - 0.3 fps is well within the error rate of the benchmark so in actuality the two were dead even. If you look down at HL2 @ 1024 x 768, you'll see the 256MB version (yours) has a slight lead over the 128MB version - 35.6 vs 33.4. In that case, the increase well beyond the average benchmark error rate of +/-2%, so that performance lead is real!

AA & AF are now staples in the gaming industry. All modern GPU's/VPU's have built-in AA engines for better performance in that area - and AF isn't even much of a bother for them, either. Turning them on is sort of expected if you have a modern vid card. In terms of the benefits of them, you'll have to see for yourself! But for me, I'd rather play a game at 800 x 600 with AA & AF turned on (at least 4x on both) than at 1024 x 768 with both turned off. The extra image quality really is worth it!

So you might want to play HL2 at 800 x 600 and then turn on AA & AF. From the looks of those benchmark numbers, it looks like those would be the best settings for your vid card.

[hockey man]

[QUOTE=saphalline] But for me, I'd rather play a game at 800 x 600 with AA & AF turned on (at least 4x on both) than at 1024 x 768 with both turned off.

So how do you turn them on or off?

[jlreich]

[QUOTE=saphalline]

So how do you turn them on or off?
From within HL2, click options, video tab, advanced button.

I always have my games on 1024x768. I am going to try setting them to 800x600 and bump up the other settings and see what happens.

Thanks for the tip Saphalline. :cool:

[saphalline]

Or for older games that don't have those settings, you can actually turn them on manually from the driver control panel. Just get into the Display Properties window (right-click on desktop and click on Properties or use the shortcut in the Control Panel), click on the Settings tab, click the Advanced button. Now you should see a new window pop up for all the cool things you can do with your vid card (this is installed with the driver). Click the 3D tab (may be a different name depending on your driver version) and look for D3D and OpenGL settings.

From here, the exact steps are dependent on your drivers, but you should see extended tabs or tree menus or a Customize button or something that will let you into the rendering settings. You can also manually adjust V-Sync here, as well as AA, AF, image quality, etc. The drivers provide the most powerful tools and methods for 3D rendering because they are tuned specifically for your vid card.

[UkGamer]

well thanks for all that info and i look forward to getting my new pc and playing HL2 at max detail 800x600 with AA and AF

ok ok i know i dont even have it yet but can it be OCed . i know sometimes the 256 ram can make it not as effective but what do yous think?

[saphalline]

ok ok i know i dont even have it yet but can it be OCedOh boy... :rolleyes: You're starting to sound like me! :D

First of all, be warned! OC'ing a vid card is a bit more touchy than a CPU, if only because it's difficult to judge when it gets too hot! Be careful...

Powerstrip (http://www.entechtaiwan.com/util/ps.shtm) is the best vid card tweaking/OC'ing utility out there. Most of us use it for OC'ing, but it also has a legitimate business/IT usage as a legacy support utility for older or even obsolete vid cards/adapters. I've yet to see a vid card/adapter that Powerstrip didn't know about!

[UkGamer]

wow any card , might have a bash at my old voodoo 3 ( now you see why i am so excited about my new pc )

[saphalline]

wow any card , might have a bash at my old voodoo 3OMFG!! :eek: Are you serious!? Have you been gaming with a vid card that old!? Wow! That's pretty bad! :p I mean, really, you can pick up $50 PCI vid cards these days that just blow the Voodoo 3 away!

I think you'll be quite pleased with your new system! :cool:

[UkGamer]

well it plays HL1 and cs but now i am bored of them and can afford a new pc :P

[UkGamer]

just to let yous know overclocked nicely from 160mhz to 170mhz so thankyou for recommending that program

also saphalline, my new pc has a tft and only supports 1280x1024 , 800x600 and 640x480 so i would have had to put it at 800x600 anyway ;) . even though its a tft 14ms should be bearable right? :confused: more specs here (http://www.fujitsu-siemens.co.uk/Resources/10/28628895.pdf)

[saphalline]

Oh yeah, that LCD monitor should be more than good enough for games. It's looks like a nice monitor, actually!

Ok, so you OC'ed the RAM speed to 170MHz, right? What about the core speed? If you have decent cooling around your vid card, you should be able to increase the core from 400MHz to about 420-430MHz without a problem. When you start getting graphical anomalies in your games (usually odd-colored blocks or textures) then you know you've OC'ed too much! :p

The best way to OC a vid card is to increase the speed by 2-5MHz at a time (never increase the core speed & RAM speed at once!), and wait a few hours in between. Play some games, use Windows normally, all that stuff. If you have problems, pull the speed down a bit (1-2MHz at a time is usually enough). Overclocking is a fine art, so go slowly.

[UkGamer]

when i go to performance profiles then configure i get a slider on the right that increases the engine clock and the memory clock and i cant seem to get them to adjust individually so they both run at 170mhz. how do i increase the core clock then (i assume its somthing differant from engine clock)

[saphalline]

The engine clock is the core clock speed. I have a slightly older version of Powerstrip (3.29) but in my version, right underneath the sliders, there's menu option called "Engine to memory clock ratio". Set it to "asynchronous clocks" and the sliders will then be free of eachother! :D

The RAM speed of 170MHz sounds correct, but the engine clock should be 400MHz by default.

[UkGamer]

YAY got my new pc ( sorry to bring this up again after so long ) and i got HL2 running at max specs with 4x Anti ananilising ,anyway how do i put anastrophic filtering on - it wasnt in HL2 graphics options
oh and one other thing what is vertical sync ? that is one of the HL2 options

[i an not a nerd]

UkGamer, a good OC utility for ATI vid cards is ATITOOL. It has an anomoly scanner, automatic OC, and can you set profiles for normal or gaming use.

[UkGamer]

thanks, and for my other problem, i found out how to put AF on. I didnt relise it was in that blinear, trinelear option thing