Video performance problem when playing halo...

FireFury · Post by **FireFury** » Sat Mar 26, 2005 8:08 pm

Problem: I'm playing halo pc on my comp. When grenades and rockets are going off, the display becomes all "choppy." I was wondering what I need to do to fix this. My video card has no problem displaying textures. Its when particals are filling the screen that it gets choppy. Do i need to buy a new video card or do I need more RAM. (This is what my friend says to do but I dont want to buy something and not have the problem fixed.) Can you plz tell me what i need to do?

BEEF!!! · Post by **BEEF!!!** » Sat Mar 26, 2005 8:38 pm

Just disable particles in the options.

FireFury · Post by **FireFury** » Sun Mar 27, 2005 7:39 pm

I know I can do that but the game isn't as fun when i do that. What do I need to upgrade?

[edit] I like not being able to see the pixels.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 11:55 pm

Set it to low resolution (640xsomething)

SunnySharma · Post by **SunnySharma** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 7:50 am

Tell us about your video card.

Waverunner · Post by **Waverunner** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 7:53 am

Ya, usually the problem with this kind of stuff is that the video card sucks.

I can't see textures in sapien b/c of my vid card. I think I might go buy one today.

Like sunnysharma said, what ur vid card that you have right now?

FireFury · Post by **FireFury** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 4:57 pm

Heres the name, NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 420. This is what came with the PC. I'm only 15 so I dont know a whole lot about computer hardware and how it works. Sorry if im not able to give the specifics on the video card.

-Thanks in advance

[PS] If someone recomends upgrading my video card, could they give a suggested card to upgade to?

Waverunner · Post by **Waverunner** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 5:02 pm

If you don't wanna spend a ton of money, the best you can get for a little bit of money is this one:

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDe ... 121&depa=0

I would recommend it highly, I have this one and it works great. I have halo on full settings and I can run Sapien great.

However, there are much better cards out there. If you want a great card and are willing to cough up some $$$, look at spending about $200 or more, but do your research. Look at a lot of cards and compare all of their specs. The cheaper one I showed you has some of the settings the much higher priced ones have. It has some problems with active camoflauge every once and a while, but other than that I would recommend it very much.

If you can spend more, do it.

TWiTCHY · Post by **TWiTCHY** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 5:16 pm

Get the crad i have, ATI Radeon x850 XT PE

Excal · Post by **Excal** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 5:42 pm

Waverunner wrote:If you don't wanna spend a ton of money, the best you can get for a little bit of money is this one:

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDe ... 121&depa=0

I would recommend it highly, I have this one and it works great. I have halo on full settings and I can run Sapien great.

However, there are much better cards out there. If you want a great card and are willing to cough up some $$$, look at spending about $200 or more, but do your research. Look at a lot of cards and compare all of their specs. The cheaper one I showed you has some of the settings the much higher priced ones have. It has some problems with active camoflauge every once and a while, but other than that I would recommend it very much.

If you can spend more, do it.

lol, look at the name: "EXCALIBUR RADEON 9250"...

Waverunner · Post by **Waverunner** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 7:34 pm

lol i never noticed that

thats a sign, you should buy that card lmao

Congratz on arbiter you lucky duck

FireFury · Post by **FireFury** » Thu Apr 07, 2005 11:28 am

HIS Hightech ATI RADEON 9250: price $50.00
Specifications:
Chipset/Core Speed: ATI Radeon 9250/240MHz
Memory/Effective Speed: 128MB DDR/400MHz
BUS: AGP 8x/4x
Ports: VGA Out(15 Pin D-Sub) + TV-Out (S-Video) + DVI
Support 3D API: DirectX 8, OpenGL 1.3
Max Resolution@32bit Color: 2048X1536
Cable/Accessories: S-Video cable, Manual, Driver CD
Retail Box

XTASY ATI RADEON 9600: price $125.00
Specifications:
Chipset/Core Speed: ATI Radeon 9600/325MHz
Memory/Effective Speed: 256MB DDR/400MHz
BUS: AGP 4X/8X
Ports: VGA Out(15 Pin D-Sub) + TV-Out (S-Video) + DVI
Support 3D API: DirectX 9, OpenGL 1.5
Max Resolution@32bit Color: 2048X1536
Cable/Accessories: Driver CD
Retail Box

These are the two cards I'm looking at. I have a couple of questions that I need clarifying on.

1. Whats the difference between "Chipset/Core Speed" and "Memory/Effective Speed"?
2. Whats the DDR stand for in 256MB DDR?
3. Will the difference in Direct X affect the grafics in Halo? Half Life 2?
4. Is the extra cost worth the money?

By the way, I'm looking to buy a card that will run Half Life 2 with ease.

-Thanks in advance!

Sonictag · Post by **Sonictag** » Thu Apr 07, 2005 12:09 pm

1. Chipset is simply the chip set version it has, core speed is simply the speed at which it works at. The memory is basically how much it can handle, the higher the memory the higher your FPS will be pretty much. Both are important factors.

2. DDR stands for Double Data Rate

3. Yes and definitly yes for half life 2.

4. Yes it is, you will notice a big big difference, especialy in frame rate and how much.

That first card will no way run half life 2 with ease, the 9600 will handle it much much better but still might not handle it on full graphics.

Katarn · Post by **Katarn** » Thu Apr 07, 2005 3:06 pm

sonictag wrote:1. Chipset is simply the chip set version it has, core speed is simply the speed at which it works at. The memory is basically how much it can handle, the higher the memory the higher your FPS will be pretty much. Both are important factors.

2. DDR stands for Double Data Rate

3. Yes and definitly yes for half life 2.

4. Yes it is, you will notice a big big difference, especialy in frame rate and how much.

That first card will no way run half life 2 with ease, the 9600 will handle it much much better but still might not handle it on full graphics.

Neither are cards you should be looking at. Those are last-generation cards you are trying to play on this-generation games. And by the time you use the card, you'll be playing next-generation games. So there is a 2-generation (4 year) gap. Buy either an radeon x800, nvidia GFX6800 ultra, GFX 6600, or radeon 9800. I have a 9800 pro, and i run halo at 1280x1024 all settings maxed, half-life 2 1280x1024 asm, riddick at 1024x768 asm, brothers in arms 1024x768 asm, and splinter cell:CT 1280x1024 asm

Don't expect the same performance from the 9800 pro tho, my card is tweaked and i'm using non-ati-made drivers, you'll probably get the same 1 or 2 resolutions lower.

Sonictag · Post by **Sonictag** » Fri Apr 08, 2005 3:06 am

x850 should be released AGP soon, so I would save my cash and buy that (but it is a big soab)

I have it on PCI on my other computer.

If that is too expensive for ya, go for an x800 or the nvidia GFX 6800 like katarn said, both those cards are on the same level, I think doom 3 runs a bit faster on the nvidia though (bad memory)

Katarn · Post by **Katarn** » Fri Apr 08, 2005 6:29 am

sonictag wrote:x850 should be released AGP soon, so I would save my cash and buy that (but it is a big soab) I have it on PCI on my other computer.

If that is too expensive for ya, go for an x800 or the nvidia GFX 6800 like katarn said, both those cards are on the same level, I think doom 3 runs a bit faster on the nvidia though (bad memory)

Half-life 2 runs faster on the x800, far cry and doom 3 run better on the GFX 6800

FireFury · Post by **FireFury** » Fri Apr 08, 2005 6:54 pm

Umm... "Click here to add to wish list!" <---- key word there is wish list... Both those video cards are $300+. I cant and wont burn that kind of cash. The max ill be willing to spend is $150, and maybe since my birthday is coming up, $250. But all the newer generation video cards are, again, $300+. If only money, grew on trees (or grass, cause there would be a whole lot more of it.)

What would be a Half Life 2 type graphics card?

Thanks for your imput!

Katarn · Post by **Katarn** » Fri Apr 08, 2005 7:26 pm

FireFury wrote: Umm... "Click here to add to wish list!" <---- key word there is wish list... Both those video cards are $300+. I cant and wont burn that kind of cash. The max ill be willing to spend is $150, and maybe since my birthday is coming up, $250. But all the newer generation video cards are, again, $300+. If only money, grew on trees (or grass, cause there would be a whole lot more of it.)

What would be a Half Life 2 type graphics card?

Thanks for your imput!

9800 pro/xt series. Go for the 256 mb if possible.

Excal · Post by **Excal** » Fri Apr 08, 2005 8:02 pm

http://www.atitech.ca/products/radeon98 ... index.html

Thats a good card (I have it) and it runs half-life 2, doom 3, and far cry with max settings (except for res which i keep at 800x600) fine.

Sonictag · Post by **Sonictag** » Sat Apr 09, 2005 4:17 am

I would wait a while, the newer cards will get cheaper eventually, if you wait like 6 months they will probably be down to $250 *maybe*. When I buy a new piece of hardware for my comp I try to buy the best available, that way you keep up to date and u can get some sweet stuff.