Problems with a 9600xt

[marlfox]

Well here's the deal, the half-life 2 engine is supposedly pretty cpu intensive, more so than previous games. This would call for a fast processor speed, and would make the cpu speed more of a factor in frame rates. What i'm debating is whether or not a 3000+ barton will increase my gaming performance, or whether or not i should get a full gig of ram, or if I'd need a new vid card. I'd like to stick with my 9600xt since I just bought it.

 

[AND_YOU_ARE]

Valve has a this system that will run HL2 with high settings: AMD 3000+, 1gb ram, radeon 9800pro. If you are going to get HL2 for sure, than get it now, and run the source stress program and see what you get, then you can decide what to upgrade.

 

[marlfox]

I think i'm going to start with an amd 3000+, and in the future get another 512 ram, i think that will help with my performance.

 

[AND_YOU_ARE]

go for it. what have you gotten for 3dmarks? and if you want to get hl2 now you can run the source stress test to see how its going to look

 

[lev2323]

i also couldnt help but notice that your ram is pc2700...that will also make a difference. If your processor supports up to 800FSB, you need pc3200 (DDR400). That together with your processor will make a difference. Also, go into Source and run the stress test and see what your result is. It should give you an average fps. I got around 60fps before i OCed my card. You should get somewhere close to that with a 9600XT. Also, make sure that you have nothing else running in the background while you are playing. And if there is anyway to get your money back on your card, try to. The 9600XT will run a little slower than a 9800Pro, but they are about the same price. If you can, get a sapphire 9800pro, which can be easily OCed to XT speeds. Let me know.