Half Life 2: Will my video card hold up? ATI 4350

[ChrisAttebery]

You can call me Rip Van Winkle...

I realize that this is a 5 year old game. I quit gaming about 7 years ago when I met my wife. I loved HL and want to play HL2 for the first time.

I just bought an HP system with an i7-920, 6GB of ram and an ATI 4350 video card. I'm running a 24" flat panel at 1920x1200. I plan to upgrade at some point, but I'd like to know if the 4350 will run this game with a decent frame rate. How does it compare to the cards of 5 years ago?

TIA,


Chris

 

[imported_Scoop]

I played HL2 with a Celeron 1200Mhz and a Geforce 5750 256MB. It wasn't smooth all the time but I was able to play it through. I think your system will be up for the task, depending on your settings

 

[Syntax Error]

HL2 is nothing for modern video cards (other than Intel integrated graphics). You don't have much to worry about, especially with those specs.

 

[happy medium]

I played half life 2 with my old ti4400 128 mb card (2002?).
That card should be ok even at 1920x1200.

 

[OVerLoRDI]

I played Half Life 2 on my 9700 pro

 

[ChrisAttebery]

Excellent! Thanks Guys.

When HL2 came out I had a Celeron 2GHz, 1 Gb of ram and a PCI ATI 9100 card. I had that POS until last week. I can't wait to see a game on my new system.

 

[frozentundra123456]

I cant answer your question directly, but will assume the other posters are correct and that that card should run the game.

However, if you plan to play any games that have come out recently, you will need to upgrade that video card. It is very low end compared to the rest of your system, which is quite nice. A HD4670 or HD4870 if your power supply is up to it would make a very nice upgrade, although since it is an off the shelf system you probably will need to upgrade the power supply for anything more powerful than the 4670.

 

[Hauk]

While you'll be able to play it, I wonder if you'll see sustained frame rates at that res with max settings. You can't play HL2 without playing episodes 1 & 2, both of which take advantage of improved texture and AF/AA settings. No offense, but that's a weak card for an i7 920 setup. Upgrade.. :evil:

 

[Qbah]

You're in luck I have a HD4350 and HL2 so I just ran it for a few minutes (well, an hour ). Put the game on 1920x1200, Medium details and low shadows and the game runs fine. It's not a solid 60FPS but it's smooth. You might be able to crank the details up a bit too. And I'm running my CPU at 1.6GHz, so you will be fine

 

[dug777]

Not sure how the 4350 compares to the 3450, but that was just agonising once I ladled on any AA

Without AA it was similar to a 6600GT or 9800 Pro, but add AA and the crippled memory bandwidth laid an epic smackdown on FPS

Here are some very quick benchmarks I did on the CSS: Stress Test comparing my 6600GT scores to my 3450 scores (which is roughly the original hl2 engine?):

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...213762&highlight_key=y

The 6600GT was coupled with an Athlon Xp 2.1Ghz, and my 3450 was my Q6600 machine...

 

[Qbah]

The HD4350 has double the shader count (increased to 80 - you could roughly say it's the "old 16") compared to HD3450 so it will run stuff a bit faster. Though any form of AA will kill performance due to the 64bit bus - so don't even try it

 

[toyota]

Originally posted by: Qbah
The HD4350 has double the shader count (increased to 80 - you could roughly say it's the "old 16") compared to HD3450 so it will run stuff a bit faster. Though any form of AA will kill performance due to the 64bit bus - so don't even try it

by faster you mean faster slideshow. lol. at least in newer games.

 

[zebrax2]

Originally posted by: toyota

Originally posted by: Qbah
The HD4350 has double the shader count (increased to 80 - you could roughly say it's the "old 16") compared to HD3450 so it will run stuff a bit faster. Though any form of AA will kill performance due to the 64bit bus - so don't even try it

by faster you mean faster slideshow. lol. at least in newer games.

Theres no need to rush and buy something now the next generation cards are just around the corner

 

[ChrisAttebery]

I didn't buy a better card with the machine because HP's prices on video cards were 50-100% over what Newegg was charging. I wasn't convinced that I'd be doing ANY gaming with it when I purchased anyway.

I'm going to wait for the next gen cards to come out before I purchase. I'm not in a big hurry. I waited 6 years to buy this machine. Another couple months isn't going to hurt me.

I will need to watch the power requirements and size of the board since the HP has a marginal PS for gaming. It seems like ATI has a better track record in this regard.

I bought HL2 over Steam last night, but it was still downloading when I went to bed. :^(

I'll check it out tongiht and report back.

 

[Hauk]

What's the psu rated for? I doubt you'll see anything next gen under $150 so if you want cheap and fast, 4850 1GB would do very nicely.

 

[Yukmouth]

I paid a little over sixty bucks for a refurb XFX 4850 512mb.

Plays almost as smooth as a console and looks just as good IMO.

 

[ChrisAttebery]

I played HL2 for about an hour last night. I got into the canals.

I used the recommended settings at 1900x1200 and it looked good to me. I liked the reflective water.

I think I'm going to wait a little longer. I bought the Orange box, so I'll have enough material to keep me busy for a couple months minimum (at the rate I have time to play it).

The 4850 will proabably be my upgrade unless someone comes out with a better card with similar power requirements.

The PSU is rated at 460w max so I think it is really about a 370w supply. Nice bait and switch marketing there HP. Overall I'm happy with the machine though. It's very quiet. I spent a bit of money and effort to get my 2GHz Celeron box to be as quiet as this one is stock. I've yet to hear the fans kick in and I have the machine in a cabinet.

 

[Qbah]

If you decide to get a HD4850, be sure to get one with non-stock cooling, as it's pretty loud even on stock settings (at least that's my opinion). Or get a GeForce GTS250 - those tend to have pretty good stock cooling (big dual slot cooler) and are around the same price.