Best video card for hl2

[Ech0]

I'm thinking about upgrading my video card. I was wondering witch video card is better for half life 2.

EVGA GeFORCE 6800GT 256MB GDDR3 AGP or ATI RADEON X800 PRO 256MB DDR AGP

 

[Schneider879]

The x800.

 

[lament]

They're both pretty close. Go with what's cheaper and what you're more familiar with.

Personally, I would go with a 6800GT, but a BFG because of the lifetime warranty and 24/7 tech support. It's what I have, and it's an amazing card.

 

[zakee00]

Originally posted by: lament
They're both pretty close. Go with what's cheaper and what you're more familiar with.

Personally, I would go with a 6800GT, but a BFG because of the lifetime warranty and 24/7 tech support. It's what I have, and it's an amazing card.

 

[VIAN]

6800GT

 

[SrGuapo]

ATi does very well in hl2, and I believe the X800 Pro will win. However, if you do any other gaming, the 800gt will probably win. If all you plan on playing is half-life 2, then you should be fine with the x800.

 

[zakee00]

Originally posted by: SrGuapo
ATi does very well in hl2, and I believe the X800 Pro will win. However, if you do any other gaming, the 800gt will probably win. If all you plan on playing is half-life 2, then you should be fine with the x800.

800gt eh? 😉

 

[imverygifted]

the tests are right in front of you, go to the vid card review section and check out the dx9 tests- ati's tend to beat nvidia but to be honest id rather have a 6800gt than x800pro unless the x800pro was a vivo then you could probably flash to xt

 

[zerocool84]

yea but hes saying just for hl2, so if its just for hl2 get ati simple as that

 

[imported_BUNGL3]

It all depends what games you play the most. ATI is the choice for DirectX based games and NVidia is the choice for OpenGL. So as far as HL2 the ATI is the obvious choice. I would still look at what else you play to make a decision both cards play HL2 well.

 

[christopherzombie]

The X800pro isn't faster than the 6800GT in HL2. Check out this link and see for yourself:

HL2 GPU round-up Anandtech

 

[DerKaiser]

And here is the summary of the X800Pro vs the 6800 GT.

 

[Steffenm]

Buy the X800Pro VIVO and mod/clock it to X800XT PE level, which no other cards come close to in HL2 performance.

 

[gobucks]

how about an X800XL? I think they are in the $375 range right now (supposed to be $300, but that aint happening anytime soon), and they keep up with a 6800GT much better than an X800 Pro, while pulling ahead a lot in HL2. I'd still prefer the 6800GT, but with the X800XL, I can at least admit that ATI's competition is just as good. The X800 Pro just isn't good enough to cost $400 - it's replacement, the X800 (slightly slower and with 128MB ram) is only $200, and the faster X800XL is only tagged at $300. Unless you want to softmod it to an XT, there isn't a point. As for HL2, it doesn't really matter who wins with these cards - My 6600GT can play HL2 just fine on 1280x1024 with 4xAA, so I can't imagine you'll notice a difference between 85FPS and 80FPS at 1600x1200 eye candy on any of the $400 cards you're talking about. What you should be looking at is how the cards will hold up to upcoming games, like Unreal 3 based games, Doom3 based games, (And HL2, but like I said, this game is pretty easy to run on most video cards, which is a huge compliment to the engine developers, cause it looks better than Doom3, which runs like crap on most non- Geforce6 systems). I personally think the GF6 series has better features, like Pixel Shader 3.0, upcoming OpenGL 2.0 support with the next driver release (forceware 75.90 beta has it now), harware DVD acceleration, and support for stuff like HDR lighting (in Farcry 1.3), and so I think it's gonna really shine with upcoming games, but that's just speculation as to which technologies will actually catch on. Of course, ATI is panning to add this stuff, and SLI, to R520, so I imagine it'll all be pretty mainstream after a while, and should help extend the life of your purchase.

 

[Brian48]

The only thing I don't like about my 6800GT with HL2 is that they still haven't ironed out the stuttering issue with my setup. According to Valve, the problem is the result of 3 conditions, one of which being a driver issue. Valve has since patched this problem on their end, but none of the beta drivers seem to correct the texture thrashing bug with the AGP. Other than that, I don't have any issues with my 6800GT.