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need a new card to play 1 game

phpdog

Senior member
Hi ,

I dont play games except for UT2004 and now HL2 .

Im looking for the cheapest card that will play HL2 at a comfortable Frame rate .

I dont want to spend much becasue im on an AV8 3rd Eye motherboard with AGP slot and im upgrading as soon as the socket 939 nForce4 LanParty motherboard is released which will have PCIe .


I know this is a question you guys must get day in day out but i really dont have a clue about GFX cards , so im looking for someone with some experiance and will know what card will suite me best .
 
I hear the 9600pro/xt play the game pretty well. they are really the only cheap cards with bonafide DX9 support. Otherwise I would suggest you apply the 16-bit patch to play with DX9 on yur 5900. I'm quite surprised that you aren't getting playable frames in your 5900xt. that should be WAY faster than even the 9600 I suggest.
 
My 9800 has served me well for those 2 games (mostly what I play as well), but it's not going to be all that cheap.
A 9700 may be out there for $100 or so second hand, and then you should be able to sell it for a bit when you are done with it.
The 9800 is basically a 9700 with higher memory and core clocks.

(didn't see that you had a 5900XT, forget that then, and look at the other posts)
 
Whats wrong with the 5900 video card in the sig?

that should run those games fine... my 9800 pro ran both of those games beautifully.
 
Maybe this is a stupid question but... will this improve the performance on a 6800GT? I would try it myself but I don't have HL2 yet...

-spike
 
Thanks for the help ... the FX5900XT is ok when its working .... this card has been a nightmare for me .

Ive tried EVERY driver out there and ive ran it in SuSE , Fedora , and Win XP but after about 1 hour or so of UT2004 the screen goes black but i can still hear the game playing away .... so i restart and its fine for about 10 minutes and then it does it again .

This card has never been overclocked , and has a GREAT HS and fan applied with AS5 , also everytime i click the nVidia icon on bottom right next to the clock the screen goes black for about 3 seconds as if its crashed and then comes back [ it makes click sound when it happens ] and this happens whenever i touch anything in the nVIDIA Control Panel settings .

I emailed nVIDIA tech about it and he told me to update drivers and stuff and eventually he told me to RMA it but the shop wouldnt take it back saying i should have returned it within 14 days of buying it .


Anyway im getting a new 1 as cheap as possible until i get my new board.

I seen a 9800 Pro Here for £ 140 .

I will sell this on in a month or 2 on ebay , so im kinda looking for something not to expensive but will hold its value for a few months .


BTW : how can i tell which version of DirectX im running , i think it's 9c but im not sure ?
 
I just downloaded 3D analyze but i dont really understand what to do ? Change an .exe file so that HL2 thinks my card is an ATI card and then tell HL2 to run in FP16 .

How do i get 3D Analyze to report my card as ATI Radeon ?


EDIT : This is the bottom of my HL2 Config_DX file

ModTextures=0
Color1=0
Color2=0
ForceAniso=0
Vendor=4098
Device=20040

So is that right ?
 
My game is running at about 90-110 FPS is that an ok avg ?

EDIT , no longer running at 90-110 after exactly 48 minutes the whole thing just went beserk , ive been trying to fix it all night , ive had enough , im buying a new GFX card .

Cheers for the help .
 
nah , i mean is that an OK avg or do most people get higher FPS , I want to know what other people get from there GFX cards !
 
Do me this favor please.....run the games you play again with your cpu at STOCK speed and see if you still get crashing.

Also what brand and wattage is your power supply???

thanks!
 
Yeah and btw 90-100 fps is pretty darn good. There are some threads from a while back about "playable" FPS etc.

I would kill to get those rates, even half of that would be playable if you are just playing the game in single player mode. multiplayer perhaps you would strive for slightly higher for online smoothness.
 
Your favour is done , ive been at stock speeds all along as everything heats up too much while playing Hl2 for hours at a time .

I Just got a new case and have to intakes or any modding yet so it's either take the side off and listen to the racket , or bump the CPU to stock .

Also i have 470watt Enlight PSU that came with the new case .

and the 90-110 FPS is at the lowest settings because at 1024 x 768 the game just staggers and then goes black .
 
90 - 100 is definately good. 50 is considered playable to most people, and you've doubled that.

I really don't suggest you buy a new vid card, can you wait like 2 or so months for the DFI?
 
We'll it seems stupid but im going to use an old FX 5200 from another system , because at 1024 x 768 is runs at about 30-35 FPS which is pretty sh1t but for now I think i'll just put up with it .


Totally crap , I dont even play PC games apart from 1 now and then , been waiting for this game for months and then find out i have to wait some more to play it in comfort .


 
Yeah sucks doesn't it? Computers are always about waiting...there's always going to be something better coming out.
 
I will sell this on in a month or 2 on ebay

This is a prime example of why I'm going to retail now for all my hardware needs. I use the FS forums to sell my good used parts and buy new at the best prices I can find.
 
Originally posted by: TourGuide
I will sell this on in a month or 2 on ebay

This is a prime example of why I'm going to retail now for all my hardware needs. I use the FS forums to sell my good used parts and buy new at the best prices I can find.

I think he meant he would sell the 9800Pro if he bought it.
 
Originally posted by: TourGuide
I will sell this on in a month or 2 on ebay

This is a prime example of why I'm going to retail now for all my hardware needs. I use the FS forums to sell my good used parts and buy new at the best prices I can find.


You should really take more time to read the posts properly before posting , if you had done you would have relized that i was talking about the 9800 Pro card , meaning i will sell that on as it would only be 2 months old and nearly new .


Originally posted by: phpdog


Anyway im getting a new 1 as cheap as possible until i get my new board.

I seen a 9800 Pro Here for £ 140 .

I will sell this on in a month or 2 on ebay , so im kinda looking for something not to expensive but will hold its value for a few months .
 
Originally posted by: phpdog
Hi ,

I dont play games except for UT2004 and now HL2 .

Im looking for the cheapest card that will play HL2 at a comfortable Frame rate .

I dont want to spend much becasue im on an AV8 3rd Eye motherboard with AGP slot and im upgrading as soon as the socket 939 nForce4 LanParty motherboard is released which will have PCIe .


I know this is a question you guys must get day in day out but i really dont have a clue about GFX cards , so im looking for someone with some experiance and will know what card will suite me best .

I don't see where it says you have a 5900XT, but if you do run your HL2 in DX8.1 and you'll be fine.
 
Originally posted by: Rollo
Originally posted by: phpdog
Hi ,

I dont play games except for UT2004 and now HL2 .

Im looking for the cheapest card that will play HL2 at a comfortable Frame rate .

I dont want to spend much becasue im on an AV8 3rd Eye motherboard with AGP slot and im upgrading as soon as the socket 939 nForce4 LanParty motherboard is released which will have PCIe .


I know this is a question you guys must get day in day out but i really dont have a clue about GFX cards , so im looking for someone with some experiance and will know what card will suite me best .

I don't see where it says you have a 5900XT, but if you do run your HL2 in DX8.1 and you'll be fine.

Yeah and I am seeing FX 5200 in his sig
 
I played both of those games A LOT with a 9800 Pro and it served me very well....UT2K4 runs like butter with a 9800 series.
 
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