Oh yeah, plus it takes an extra PCI slot, its really loud, and AA and AF are disabled at higher resolutions.

Yes, ATI cheated too, by 2%. Nvidia cheated by 23%.

Its not loud. You are thinking about the 5600ultra pos thing nvidia brought out to fight the 9700pro. I think I heard that it runs at about 40db. Which isnt great, but its no louder than the ati. And that pci slot is a no-no to use anyway, and even without it, I still have 4 empty ones. No loss there.

Dont get me wrong, I will probably get the ATI, and I agree that it is a much better card for the money. But if you were told you had to build the baddest gaming box possible, with no regard for cost, the nvidia would be there, not the ati. At least until someone brings out a new set of benchmarks that say otherwise. freak:

Its not loud. You are thinking about the 5600ultra pos thing nvidia brought out to fight the 9700pro. I think I heard that it runs at about 40db. Which isnt great, but its no louder than the ati. And that pci slot is a no-no to use anyway, and even without it, I still have 4 empty ones. No loss there.

Dont get me wrong, I will probably get the ATI, and I agree that it is a much better card for the money. But if you were told you had to build the baddest gaming box possible, with no regard for cost, the nvidia would be there, not the ati. At least until someone brings out a new set of benchmarks that say otherwise. freak:

So long as you have a 64mb gfx card or higher you won't need to upgrade it to play HL2 (I'm not speaking for D3, that is being designed for the next gen gfx cards anyway, so that's a given).

The biggest factor will be the cpu you have. It always is. You can have a shit-hot Gfx card, memory and whatever, but if you don't have a sweet cpu then they'll count for nothing.

First upgrade for any HL2 users should be to get Athlon XP+ or P4 technology Mboards and Cpu.

I made the mistake of upgrading my voodoo3 16mb first when I got MoH:AA - It did nothing (maybe 5-10 FPS boost, that's all). It was when I upgraded my Duron 700Mhz to my Athlon xp2000+ that MoH started to fly and I'll bet it still would have shifted pixels faster even if I still had the Voodoo3.

That's my advice: If you have a geforce3 or 4, don't upgrade that until you upgrade your mboard and cpu - Valve are not creating this game by the end of this year to only have it sold to the small minority of PC users who can afford top-end gfx cards.

It is being designed to work on Gforce3-4 and equivalent architecture. In that sense, having gfx cards that are more powerful will not make a difference (Like geforce4 didn't make a difference to MOH over geforce3, because Geforce4 wasn't in existence when MoH was being developed).

For those who already have XP2000+ or better architecture then sure, go ahead and upgrade your gfx card, but I honestly don't think it will be necessary for HL2.

Edit: I stress the word "necessary" - Having a nice new gfx is always nice, if you can afford it and I'm sure with a nice cpu it will benefit HL2 in the long-run - I just don't think it's going to be needed.

I'll not be upgrading my 4600 for some time, and I'll see if my XP 1600 can handle Half Life. It not its possible it's time to plunk down 80 bucks for a new mobo/cpu combo. I dont expect this game to COMPLETELY kill the setup I have now. I'm thinking it'll run pretty damn fine.

Ydiss - I agree with you if all you want to do is play the game. I want to be able to turn everything up and appreciate the bells and whistles.

As far as the processor and such, I have plenty. Maybe another 512 of ram, and a possible upgrade from my xp2200 to a xp3000 sometime in the future, but not anytime soon. I bought my ti4200 cheap, knowing it was only a short term solution. A 9-12 months ago, I decided that if I was going to drop a bunch of cash of a vid card, I might as well wait until there was a game worthy of it, and get the current top dog, or at least something close to it. I think HL2, doom and halo all coming out close together is a worthy event.

Agreed. Pity I can't afford that kind of thing hehe.

I actually got a domain name for a HL2 site - halflifetwo.com - but I just don't have time to run it with my job, live-in girlfriend, and movv.com too.

If anyone is interested in running the site or purchasing the domain, just PM me. Running the site will involve hosting the site as well, so if you don't have the money, don't bother.

[quote:bd963]I actually got a domain name for a HL2 site - halflifetwo.com - but I just don't have time to run it with my job, live-in girlfriend, and movv.com too.[/quote:bd963]

With the glut of Half-Life/Counter-Strike/etc. sites out there, you've got alot of work ahead of you to make THAT site count.

Supposedly lower-end computers won't be left in the lurk because they're going to have a low entry spec for the minimum requirements, about 700MHz for the processor, not sure about other things though...I forget where I heard or read it. I had zero problems running the first Half-Life on Software, it's specs were so low so everyone enjoyed how it was meant to be, no probz, thankfully/hopefully I think they'll do the best they can on this one so that more people can get involved and not be left crying by their PC tower mumbling "why....why.....WHY...."

[quote="ED! Ban #127":adf1a][quote:adf1a]I actually got a domain name for a HL2 site - halflifetwo.com - but I just don't have time to run it with my job, live-in girlfriend, and movv.com too.[/quote:adf1a]

With the glut of Half-Life/Counter-Strike/etc. sites out there, you've got alot of work ahead of you to make THAT site count.[/quote:adf1a]

Yeah.. that's why I'm not shoving it into my schedule. I figure, though, if someone who is more into HL2 than myself wants it, they might be able to do something with it.