GeForce 4 MX

[Seriously Deadly]

Im looking at Half Life 2 right now and im not sure what it means by "Direct X 7" video card for minumum requirements. I have a GeForce 4 MX...

[FUS1ON]

I had a neat list of the GeForce cards and DirectX compatibly notes for each GPU, but can't find it now. Your card is DirectX 7 compatible, if it will run HL2 at a decent framerate is a whole different story.

[BobtheCkroach]

That's a directx 7 card, so you should technically be able to run it, but before you drop money on it, I would download the demo and give it a whirl...I think you'll find that you can *technically* play it, but that it also isn't really worth it...

[EXEcution]

Hmm the MX should be compatible, but it prolly won't run as welll as it would with a more recent card. I would recommend upgrading to at least the minimum.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814121186

This will boost performanc eand actually run the game... at medium settings.

[FUS1ON]

This might also help
http://www.gamemecca.net/forums/showthread.php?t=76250

[BobtheCkroach]

Hmm the MX should be compatible, but it prolly won't run as welll as it would with a more recent card. I would recommend upgrading to at least the minimum.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814121186

This will boost performanc eand actually run the game... at medium settings.

I wouldn't choose this card. The FX series was never very good, especially if you go below the 5900...I know you can't get them nearly as cheap, but honestly you'll end up wanting new as soon as this hits your machine. I wanted a new card as soon as I bought this one, and I bought this one 3 years ago...

[SoulReaver]

I doubt you'll be able to play it well. I have a graphics card around the same as that one on another comp and it runs BARELY on CS:S with everything on low. And HL2 requires an even better GPU, so I doubt you'll be able to run it smoothly. Just upgrade.

[ME BIGGD01]

that card was a big rip off. it had the gf4 name but it was not a directx8 compliant card. this is what i mean about the crappy naimg or marketing schemes these companies use to sell. i have a few of those cards lying around and they are pretty much useless if you want to play a game that is 2 yrs old.

[EXEcution]

I wouldn't choose this card. The FX series was never very good, especially if you go below the 5900...I know you can't get them nearly as cheap, but honestly you'll end up wanting new as soon as this hits your machine. I wanted a new card as soon as I bought this one, and I bought this one 3 years ago...
I realise that it sucks and is pretty much equilavelnt to a GeForce 4 card but with more VRAM.

Actually I recommended it because I didn't think that his parents would allow him to upgrade to something over $50. It's pretty hard convincing ur mom or dad to spend over $50 on some computer part that "makes games run better". It can be a difficult concept to grasp for simple computer users.

This is the card I had before upgrading to the 7800GT and it ran HL2 and CS:S pretty well. Granted I also had an AMD 2500+ and a gig or RAM.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814129033

I actually had the ATi brand which came with a free copy of HL2 since the Source engine was "better optimized for ATi cards." The 256MB of VRAM will boost your performance as well since there is more space to load the textures onto.

[ME BIGGD01]

99 bucks for a 9600 is nuts. its a good card if you have it and will run many games but to go out and buy it now makes no sense.

you can buy a ati card 1300 that would be cheaper and support the av codec that speeds things up something special. I am suprised you do not have one of those since youa re into editing.

There are motherboards out there today with integrated video that is better then all those video cards. funny thing is the boards cost on average 79-89 bucks. For example the nforce 4 6150 a8n-vm csm model which I am currently testing for a media solution. It will run 3dmrk 06 but give a very low score like 220 or something but regardless it is a pretty pwerful unit for integrated video.

[EXEcution]

99 bucks for a 9600 is nuts. its a good card if you have it and will run many games but to go out and buy it now makes no sense.

you can buy a ati card 1300 that would be cheaper and support the av codec that speeds things up something special. I am suprised you do not have one of those since youa re into editing.

There are motherboards out there today with integrated video that is better then all those video cards. funny thing is the boards cost on average 79-89 bucks. For example the nforce 4 6150 a8n-vm csm model which I am currently testing for a media solution. It will run 3dmrk 06 but give a very low score like 220 or something but regardless it is a pretty pwerful unit for integrated video.
LOL I don't edit professionally, those solutions are nothing to me. I don't plan on actually having an editing studio or even an advanced editing software suite. If I was actually serious about it I would be using a Mac since they are ideal for that kind of stuff.

Vegas 4.0 is more than enough for me and it can virtually run on any card. The card costs $100 since it has a good amount of memory and WILL run HL2 well. As for Quake 4 and other future games, maybe not. It's really up to SD what he wants to get but I doubt that he will be spending $200+ in the near future for a seemingly "unnecessary" upgrade.

The true gamer doesn't necessarily have the greatest system on earth. They simply lower their settings (which I even do with my card) to get that extra 10FPS boost. To me advanced graphics (shaders, textures, shadows, particles, etc.) are eye candy as long as I can see my opponent on screen and the level geometry around me I'm happy. I don't sit and play games to marvel at how well they designed a crate or overhead lighting. Gaming is not a viewing experience, it's visual yes but it's about how good of a player you are. And even the best hardware can't make you Fatal1ty. Ask him yourself.

[ME BIGGD01]

I thought you were looking into Video editing for a profession. Oh well, sorry to hear that. Byte your tongue on that Mac comment:eek: . Don't let the mac fanatics fool you. A lot of stuff gets edited on a pc. As for vegas, you as a student should really look into AVID software because students get great pricing. It also works on a mac and pc based machines so you could always switch the dongle to the other system.

As far as video cards go, I think that what ever somebody can afford, they should look for the best card with that specific budget. Considering that budget, they might want to look for something that has the latest hardware support rather then just raw clock speed. Prices on mid range cards a good right now but the highend cards are over priced. I think asking mom and dad to buy a 100 dollar card is reasonable considering a game costs 60 bucks for xbox and a game cost 50 bucks for a pc.

[JIMINATOR]

on that note, some people are of the opinion that apple is going to get out of the software development business. after all, they are making a boatload of money on the ipods & itunes. now that they have switched to the x86 platform, next phase may be binary compatibility with windows, and then they can just let microsoft spend the R+D bucks for OS & drivers & compatibility issues.

also, for the integrated chipset scoring in the 200's on 3dmark06, that is actually a pretty kickass number....

[Seriously Deadly]

ok guys. my dad also bought me a video card with the game :D its a GeForce 6600 something so i know it will work

[ME BIGGD01]

I am ratherly impressed with the board myself. I am one of the lucky bastards that does get to test these sort of things. For 79 bucks, you can not beat the price for all this micro atx board has. Raid 5, geforce 6150 which is a 6x series chip, video out but you need the cable as it does not come with board (scumbags), firewire 2 ports, nforce 4 chipset, 1- 16 x pci express slot, 2 pci slots and audio. Anyone can spens 150 bucks for a 3000 athlon64 and 79 for the board and take all of their ddr 400 from old system and have a damn good system cheap. This specific use is for a media center based unit.

[BobtheCkroach]

ok guys. my dad also bought me a video card with the game :D its a GeForce 6600 something so i know it will work

That's what I run and I've been very pleased with it. I'm not sure of your entire system spec, so I can't tell you exactly what performance you'll see, but you'll see a heck of an improvement from that puppy.

[Rivers]

ok guys. my dad also bought me a video card with the game :D its a GeForce 6600 something so i know it will work

The 6600 series was a good series for budget users. I got a 6600gt and it hacks HL2 and CS:S on high with all the goods turned up. It didn't run HL: Lost Coast as good as I had hoped but, then again, I didn't spend 300 bucks on it just 120. My 6600gt also runs Quake IV on high with everything on (minus AA and AF) and I was actually quiet pleased with that. I think it'll be good for what you want it to do.

[Seriously Deadly]

i g2 wait till tomorow to for my dad to put in the new video card. :(

[tigertunes]

should work fine if you got some nice ram and a good cpu to work along side :)