Will my Matrox G400 have any problems running Half Life smoothly?

[Antoneo]

Here's my setup:

Intel Tualatin Celeron 1.4Ghz (100FSB)
512 PC100 SDRAM
Matrox G400 16MB
Maxtor 80GB 8MB cache

I'm don't recall the performance of the G400 in Half Life back when I was shopping a video card. I choose a TNT2U back then, and now I've bought a G400 to replace that. I'm about to buy Half Life, think it run smoothly at 1024x768@32bit?

 

[Harabecw]

seeing as how it runs Q3 decently on an Athlon 800 (anand's own review) and the fact that probably even your cat can run HL, I'd say yes.

 

[Schadenfroh]

HL supports 32bit colour?

 

[Harabecw]

yes, I most certainly remember it does. I think thats what I ran it with on my old P3 machine.

 

[selfbuilt]

I played the original half-life on a G400/Duron 600 system, and it played great, so I don't imagine you'll have any problems.

 

[KillaBong]

I guess, but it looks bad in settings that you'll be able to run it in. My overclocked ti4600/2.3ghz athlon doesn't even run it smoothly when somone throws a smoke nade.

 

[Antoneo]

Originally posted by: KillaBong
I guess, but it looks bad in settings that you'll be able to run it in. My overclocked ti4600/2.3ghz athlon doesn't even run it smoothly when somone throws a smoke nade.

Uh, wow. Are you sure it's not a bug in the game that the devs neglected to fix?

 

[KillaBong]

I run it in 1600x1200, Quality textures, 4xAA, 8xAF. I think it's just trying to use aa on all the smoke puffs and has to work hard. I still would think it should run half-life at these settings though.

 

[Harabecw]

AA'd smoke (in nearly every game) kills most cards. this has nothing to do with HL.

 

[selfbuilt]

Max resolution and max AA and AF? I'm not surprised the ti4600 chokes on that! But if you want to run the game as the original poster mentioned (1024x768x32), the G400 will be fine.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

1) Your G400 will be just fine.
2) People like you are the reason I love the new smoke nade in CS1.6, KillaBong.

- M4H

 

[Harabecw]

Thou art evilth bastarth, mercenarythforthhireth.

 

[NYHoustonman]

Couple of things-
Half-Life was limited to 24 bit color
Nearly any computer can run it

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Originally posted by: NYHoustonman
Couple of things-
Half-Life was limited to 24 bit color
Nearly any computer can run it

1) "hl.exe -console -32bpp" - pwn3d.
2) Unless it has the words "Intel", "Extreme" and "Video" in the same sentence.
3) Yes, I am an evil bastard. Smoke + M4A1 = dead no0blArs everywhere!

- M4H

 

[Antoneo]

Well, I've been running a Matrox G400 16MB card on the intro sequence of Half Life at 1024x768 @ whatever bits since I don't know how to get to the console and it is choppy. Response to key and mouse movements is slow. Hrmmm... I'm using the latest WHQL drivers, Win2k SP2, and DirectX 7.0. Hrmmm where can I see the framerates?

 

[squidman]

Originally posted by: MercenaryForHire

Originally posted by: NYHoustonman
Couple of things-
Half-Life was limited to 24 bit color
Nearly any computer can run it

1) "hl.exe -console -32bpp" - pwn3d.
2) Unless it has the words "Intel", "Extreme" and "Video" in the same sentence.
3) Yes, I am an evil bastard. Smoke + M4A1 = dead no0blArs everywhere!

- M4H

Muwahaha! Im evilER than thee! From 1998, (i play CS for like 2 months every year, then get bored of it), i be using NOTHING but ak47, and a p229. Haha! snipe fools from everywhere with the ak!!! headshots...and what makes me even evilER? Is that i sniped fools with 56k dialup! muwahahaha! :evil:

 

[Antoneo]

Originally posted by: Antoneo
Well, I've been running a Matrox G400 16MB card on the intro sequence of Half Life at 1024x768 @ whatever bits since I don't know how to get to the console and it is choppy. Response to key and mouse movements is slow. Hrmmm... I'm using the latest WHQL drivers, Win2k SP2, and DirectX 7.0. Hrmmm where can I see the framerates?

Heh, quoting myself . I was playing for a bit and CS runs fine. I don't know what is wrong with Half Life but bah. The only choppiness encountered is when zooming . Do we have a dedicated Anandtech server?

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: KillaBong
I guess, but it looks bad in settings that you'll be able to run it in. My overclocked ti4600/2.3ghz athlon doesn't even run it smoothly when somone throws a smoke nade.

Uhhh, you've got problems... I run CS in 1024x768x32 with 2X AA and 4XAF... I also have FPS locked at 85 (to match my monitor's refresh rate)... my FPS RARELY dips below 85... I can throw smoke one after another... run through it, twirl around in the middle of the smoke cloud, and it rarely drops below 80