The Orange Box graphics card question Created 16 years ago2007-10-29 09:45:57 UTC by KingDaniel

Months ago Valve released the specs for the Episode Two bundle. Amongst them was ?DirectX 8 graphics card?. Yay! I can play it! It?ll look like shit and judder like hell but it?ll run!!!
Upon release, I go to the store and pick up the Orange Box?and it says ?128Mb DX8 card?. Mine?s only 64Mb! Quite a let down?
Five years ago I turned down the 128Mb Geforce 4 because the 64Mb one was clocked a lot higher and outperformed it by quite a margin (according to PC mags and the internet at the time).
www.steampowered.com swears any DX8 card will manage it. The box says otherwise.
Anyone playing Episode 2 or Portal on a 64Mb card? Will it work or won?t it?
A tiny part of me holds out hope it?s only TF2 (which I?m not interested in) that needs 128Mb V-ram?

Oh my GOD!
Just shut up and get a new card!
64Mb? I lol'd
The absolute minimum today is 128, and that still sucks!

HL2: Ep2 needs 128Mb mem on the GPU.
Isn't it obvious that 64 is rather crappy?

No, Ep2 won't work with 64, and it won't work well with 128 either.
I tried it on my laptop which is better than the minimum specs needed.
It lagged like hell

Yes i know 64mb is crap these days
And even yesterdays for that matter.
And i know my comp is ancient but it's not worth upgrading just for one game (or rather, one add-on pack).

yes, but is it worth upgrading for every other game that will ever come out since 3 years ago?

No, Ep2 won't work with 64, and it won't work well with 128 either.

Strange, I can play it with my 2,5 year old 9550 128 MB with almost everything on high (shadows on medium of course), with HDR on, and in 800x600 at an average 45-50 fps, 1024x768 at average 35 fps. Sure, you can't say "OMFG120FPSLOL" but it's certainly not lagging. And if you're not in posession of a big-ass 19" monitor, 1024x768 is quite nice. As for the 64 MB Geforce 4 Ti...the raw power of that card is even greater, than the power of my 9550. (old example, but true: 3DMark2001 at 1024x768 - Radeon 9550: ~7200 points, Geforce Ti 4200: ~10000 points)

I don't know about compatibility issues, or how much ep2 supports Dx8 cards, but if it does, it should run at a decent frame rate in 800x600. The new, optimized source engine can run at a decent frame rate even on older cards (thank you Valve) and I'm sick of those people, who urge others to buy the latest goddamned harware.

Yep, if you absolutely need to play every game that comes out, and play them above 1024x768 with all flashy effects turned on, and if you're rich / obsessed / retarded enough to buy a new video card every year (preferably half year), do it.

EDIT: Sorry for the harsh response, but it's just incredible how much the gaming industry tries to contol the gamers.

Strange, I can play it with my 2,5 year old 9550 128 MB with almost everything on high (shadows on medium of course), with HDR on, and in 800x600 at an average 45-50 fps, 1024x768 at average 35 fps. Sure, you can't say "OMFG120FPSLOL" but it's certainly not lagging. And if you're not in posession of a big-ass 19" monitor, 1024x768 is quite nice. As for the 64 MB Geforce 4 Ti...the raw power of that card is even greater, than the power of my 9550. (old example, but true: 3DMark2001 at 1024x768 - Radeon 9550: ~7200 points, Geforce Ti 4200: ~10000 points)

That must be one seriously awesome 128 card ;O

I don't buy new stuff very often, but when I do buy, I buy good stuff which probably will last for a long time

Actually it's a mediocre card from 2005. And it's still able to run new games. Strange huh? Don't underestimate older cards, just because they are old.

yeah... the 9800 pro can still kick some ass!

But honestly, you must upgrade, for the sake of humanity. You don't have to go all singing all dancing, just spend 30 quid and you'll run the game no problem. By the sounds of it, your computer is in desperate need of attention, and don't by any means think that this would only benefit the HL series.

Anyway... enough of my moaning.

It is that the game is refusing to run with an error message? Otherwise there are apps out there to resource share, and maybe try overclocking, but seriously, but the sound of it, it really ain't worth it.

Actually it's a mediocre card from 2005. And it's still able to run new games. Strange huh? Don't underestimate older cards, just because they are old.

Trust me I don't.

I had an ATI card for like 4 years (no srsly), but it burned up a few months ago.
It was able to run source in pretty much the same settings as yours could.
But no HDR made me a sad cow D:

Also, I've been using the same CPU for like 3 years now.
Still works great...

I still have a GeForce 4 MX 440...I don't actually use it, of course. That's just stupid.

Yes, 'cos that card sucks, not to mention, that it's a DX7 card. The Ti series was much better, the Ti 4600 was almost two times faster, than the MX GF4 cards. Even the GeForce 3 Ti 200 was better.

all these numbers....

I had a radeon 9550 in my old pc.
Ran source like it had nothing better to do.

And then i stuck a geforce 6200 in this machine, and come to find out they're like the same damn card, but i got it for $59 so what the hell, i'll be happy til i upgrade

I gots me a 128Mb Geforce 6600GT and its getting raped by my new games. Upgrading to 256MB within the next month.

256 WHAT? video performance does not equal video card memory. exactly what model card is it?

Oh well I've got a 256MB ATI x700... it gets raped by some of the newer games too... but that's just because NOW a day, it's a low grade card... =( said that if you want to stay 'current', you have to upgrade every three months...

yeah SCREW that

Heh, I'm lucky if I upgrade every 2 years.

Hey well, my lottery numbers should be coming up any day now

Theoretically, we all like to upgrade every six months and buy a new computer every two years, but we don't have unlimited resources.

I have my computer for three years, and it's still running most games for me.

I'll upgrade when I can no longer run Source games.

geez, i;m lucky to have a computer last for 2 or 3 years. I run them awfully hot most of the time.

my new comp should be lasting. Also, i heard from a friend that builds custom comps, i asked and he said that the Nvidia 8700 is good for the next year if you've got at least 256 ram attached to it. As well, you must have a minimum of 2 gb of ram, more is always better and can often be the best investment.

I scratched a few items off of my parts list.

I havent actually bought the game yet - i was just wondering if anyone else had tried it on a 64Mb card. Does Ep2 demand more than, say, Lost Coast? LC runs OK on my system (a little laggy, but easily playable)I've been told "get a second hand 128Mb card for ?20" by a few people and i'll probably end up doing that...

yes

I havent actually bought the game yet - i was just wondering if anyone else had tried it on a 64Mb card. Does Ep2 demand more than, say, Lost Coast? LC runs OK on my system (a little laggy, but easily playable)I've been told "get a second hand 128Mb card for ?20" by a few people and i'll probably end up doing that...

Ep2 should require more than hl2 because the graphics, the effects and the effort put in it is just much better.

I have a 512mb card and its perfect, i can run bioshock on high settings without lag! except that i don't have that much cpu so it loads long.

Better get something good, like a 256mb or a 512mb. Most new top games like bioshock require a 512mb video card, and dont expect a 128 to take em!

256 is usually pertaining to resolutions of everything. You should really be looking at GPU and memory speeds, on top of memory amounts.

Just in case anyone cared?
Portal ran 100% perfectly on my ancient PC.
Episode Two ran fine ? a little slow (occasionally) near the end (the awesome Magnusson Device / Strider Buster bit) and the end sequence itself was ruined by slowing to one frame every ten seconds when the end Advisors appeared (can?t see why though ? some weird non-effect, I guess).
Other than those bits it ran perfectly.
The games were very, very good.

I bet it looked like crap though.

Ghetto, they used to sell Geforce 5 series cards with that much memory. The amount of memory a card has is not very indicative of its performance, and it usually has a negligent impact on it. It is, however, used as a tactic to sell crappy cards to people who don't know any better.

Also, just realized how old this thread was. D:

It is, however, used as a tactic to sell crappy cards to people who don't know any better.

Much like plenty of gigahurtz isn't all that matters for a processor or plenty of megabytes isn't all that matters for RAM. Customers are dumb.

Fortunately you can't go too wrong with RAM. Basically, the more the better.

But with SuperStupidBrand Premium Gamer Edition with timings of 4-4-3-2-11, you'll get the edge you need to get that frag! ($372 for 2GB)

lol

I lol'd