Hey All,

Just wondering how Half-Life 2(CS:Source in particular) would run on a system with the following specs:

Athlon 2000+
512 MB PC 2700 (2x 256 MB)
Geforce 4 4200

Don't wanna buy it and not be able to play it, and system requirements and recommended specs on the box are not very reliable now-a-days...

Thanks!

~ K

It will work fine, the ti4200 is a pretty good card.

The graphics card should not be a problem, but more RAM(+512) will greatly increase the performance. With (2X256) I could still play but only at minimum settings.

You guys must be kidding. You're barely going to see a performance gain out of upgrading to 1gb ram compared to upgrading your video card, which must be 3 years old by now. Your video card is what... a low-end card in the 4th series from new. That's your biggest bottleneck. Next would be the CPU. Then the RAM, at a much less noticable bottleneck.

edit: oh, if you played with your current specs, you're probably looking at 30-35fps in lowest detail, I'd guess.

Yeah, the Source Engine is a processor hog, so your proc. may end up being your biggest bottleneck.

With a ti4200, I ran 30 fps on 1024x768, medium detail on linux. The ti4200 might be an old card, but its faster than a lot of newer cards. 512mb of ram is fine.

which ones?

512 is fine but when i went up to 768 it was a lot easier to alt+tab which i seem to do pretty frequently

i have a p4 2.8 and geforce 5200 fx

I'd up the CPU speed - CS: Source isn't too much of a CPU hog, but the actual game is, in my experience.

I have:

XP 2000+
512 MB 2100 RAM
Radeon 9600 Pro 256 MB

I ran this game on high settings (mostly) at 1024 x 768 and the game played great. It took a little bit for it to embed itself in the RAM, but after that it ran flawlessly. Believe me, I was surprised too.

you can play the game on almost anything, its just how fancy do you want it to look

Well I've been thinking about upgrading my video card, but I can't justify buying a high-end video card as it'll have to be AGP to work in my current machine. I'd rather just wait and build a new box that would support PCI Express.

Any recommendations on a mid-range card? I've been thinking about getting a medium range 6800 ( <$300 ) to last me til I get out of school. My girlfriend would probably appreciate a 4200 too, as she's currently running WoW with embedded graphics on a machine slightly faster than mine (2200+). Not worth selling the 4200 at e-bay prices, ehehe.

The 6800 looks freakin cool, but then again the demo from the team that did FarCry of what DX10 cards should be able to do is even cooler.

BTW, I primarily just want to play CS:Source. Now that HL2 is down to $30 (might have been for a while, haven't checked lately), I can justify it =P

Thanks!

~ K

your in the same pickle I am. Got a crusty fx 5600 ultra and wanted to bump up video cards....but at end of semester i'm probably building new system and going pci-e.


Unfortunateliy I just missed ATI refurbished x800 pro 256mb cards direct from ATI with 3 year warrenty for $179 They sold out a few days ago right as i got the money in my bank account.

I was thinking about maybe trying the 6800 LE then trying to unlock it, but its the luck of the draw and I don't feel like gambling.

Ya.. now is a tough time to upgrade if all you need is a new video card. I bought an AGP BFG 6800 GT 256mb from my roommate because he had to get a new motherboard (long story), so I think this machine will last me another couple years. The nice thing about that is that by then, Windows Vista should be well under way and 64 bit stuff should have taken off. Also, that allows more time for developers to build multi-threaded applications for the dual core cpu's that are going mainstream.

So that's how I justified buying a new card.. I think it's actually a pretty good outlook.

I just bought a 6800 LE. I have to say that it's almost definitely the best card for under $200 right now. Plays CS:S with all settings on high and 4x AA at about 50 fps.

Mine didn't unlock without artifacts either. It's actually a pretty good card regardless.