hl2 problems

[68falcon]

when i play hl2 it takes it a while to load to begin with, not sure how long its supposed to take. but when loading in the level right after it loads it is choppy and sometimes freezes for a second if i try to do anything. no other game does this but hl2 is the only game i have that puts much stress on my sytem, the only others that come close are halo and nfus2. any ideas

 

[imported_Truenofan]

how much ram is windows using before you boot the game.

 

[CreativeTom]

Not enough information. Please include some system system specs as well as what settings you are runing the game on ie....resolution etc.....

 

[68falcon]

game settings:
Model Detail- High*
Texture Detail- High*
Water Detail- Reflect All
Shadow Detail- High*
Antialiasing Mode- 2x
Filtering Mode- Antistropic 2x
Shader Detail- High*
Wait for vertical sync- Disabled

system specs:
Asus P5gdc-v deluxe
P4 2.8Ghz 800Mhz
DDRAM 1GB pc3200 (1 stick)
Samsung 160GB SATA 8MB buffer 7200 RPM
PCI-Express x800XL
Antec Smartpower 2.0 500W

just ask if theres anything else, the asteriks mean that its set for my system, but i would think with that video card i could do better

 

[Trizik]

with your specs those settings should be fine. exactly how long does it take to load HL2? after it gets past that initial map change lag are you able to play without any problems?

how full is your hard drive?

this is what you should do, in this order:

1) validate your Steam/HL2 files via this link (copy & paste into address bar): steam://validate/240
2) then run defrag on your hard drive

 

[alexseng]

set your screen resolution down by 1 setting, it helped me, and running around 60-70 fps and it cut down the loading time to around 30 secs to a minute with just a radeon 9600 256 mb

 

[stevty2889]

What resolution are you trying to run at? At 1280x1024 you should be ok, but if you are trying to run at 1600x1200 thats probably a bit too much. What are the temps at on your P4? It might be throttling. You are also being hurt by the fact that you aren't running dual channel, P4's are very bandwidth hungry. HL2 does take a little while to load, but how long is it taking?

 

[imported_Kensai]

You might want to overclock that 2.8GHz Presshot..

 

[Gooberlx2]

Only 1 stick of RAM? That mobo is dual-channel capable, add another stick of matched ram and wouldn't that help alot?

 

[The Pentium Guy]

Originally posted by: 68falcon
when i play hl2 it takes it a while to load to begin with, not sure how long its supposed to take. but when loading in the level right after it loads it is choppy and sometimes freezes for a second if i try to do anything. no other game does this but hl2 is the only game i have that puts much stress on my sytem, the only others that come close are halo and nfus2. any ideas

That's fine. HL2, even on a good computer, takes a while to load. Choppiness right after it loads? That's normal.

You have an intel and PC3200 RAM, that's your bottleneck I beleive. P4's are bandwidth hungry. Overclock your RAM, your processor is good enough to play that game.

 

[fuzzynavel]

Originally posted by: 68falcon
game settings:
Model Detail- High*
Texture Detail- High*
Water Detail- Reflect All
Shadow Detail- High*
Antialiasing Mode- 2x
Filtering Mode- Antistropic 2x
Shader Detail- High*
Wait for vertical sync- Disabled

system specs:
Asus P5gdc-v deluxe
P4 2.8Ghz 800Mhz
DDRAM 1GB pc3200 (1 stick)
Samsung 160GB SATA 8MB buffer 7200 RPM
PCI-Express x800XL
Antec Smartpower 2.0 500W

just ask if theres anything else, the asteriks mean that its set for my system, but i would think with that video card i could do better

The rig in my sig plays HL2 at over 80 fps at 1280x1024 with

Model Detail- High*
Texture Detail- High*
Water Detail- Reflect All
Shadow Detail- High*
Antialiasing Mode- 6x
Filtering Mode- Antistropic 16x
Shader Detail- High*
Wait for vertical sync- Disabled

Notice the AA and AF......You should be able to manage that......this is without the GFX overclock in my sig...although X800xl overclocks are hardly worth bothering about!

 

[68falcon]

how ful is your hard drive? 34.6GB(used) 114GB(free)
P4 temp: idle- 42C-43C
right after- 55C
time to launch main menu after valve seen(the guy with the valve in his eye)- 34seconds
time to load game from menu- 17 seconds
i play at 1024x768 the display is full screen, aspect ratio is normal(4:3) and brightness level is 2.2
i defrag every night
i cant do the validation cause this computer is not connected to the internet
i dont wont to overclock for fear of ruining it(cpu and video card)

 

[68falcon]

maybe im worrying too much, i dunno

 

[stevty2889]

Well your temps look fine, loading time looks about right, shouldn't be stuttering at 1024x768, You are taking a performance hit by running single channel, but don't know that that can account for it.