What video card will let me play HL2: ep 1 in 1920x1080

Playing around with a new notebook right now... x9000 processor, 8800gtx graphics, 4gb of ram, etc etc.

Now playing HL2 Episode One I can have every setting maxed out running at 1920x1080, and it does it without even flinching. Now compare this to my desktop which can barely do 1280x720 with AA off, reflections turned off, and other stuff tweaked to get good gameplay.

Currently my desktop specs are the following:

1.86 Core 2 Duo
3gb ram
7600gt gigabyte (passive cooled, clocked slightly less than normal)
5 7200rpm 7200.10 drives

Would I 8600gt come close to being able to do this, or would I need the 8800gt+ for that resolution and settings?

 

the 8800M GTX is based on the 8800 GT, though the GT has like 10 more shaders, or something, and probably faster clock speeds. So yeah, the GT should be able to handle it fine, as well has having a good processor.

 

Any idea if my 1.86 can even cope if I get the 8800gt?

 

Normally the GPU is the Bottleneck, I don't think that the 8800GT's clock speeds can compare with a C2D.

 

It's a fast enough CPU to play games. You could consider overclocking it if you have a self-built system; mainstream machines are not overclockable because the manufactures lock down the systems.

If you upgrade to an 8800GT you'll want to make sure you have a powerful enough power supply. It will definitely play EP1 @ full res and details.

Edit: Consider getting an ATI HD 3850. Great price and certainly a great card. It too is able to handle modern games maxed out save for Crysis and perhaps one or two others.

 

Its a homebuilt system, tradition since my ancient 33mhz 486 system

Asus P5B Deluxe Wifi board, Seasonic 380w power supply (I have a spare 560x2 load leveling one if needed), and plenty of case cooling.

While the system does support OC'in and I have a massive heatsink, I cant manage to get any stable increase (even with voltage bumps) without odd errors coming up.

Also just tried finding the 3850, and cant find it from any of my usual sources (NE, ZZF, etc)... who sells it?

 

Your desktop should be screaming through Episode One. The 7600GT may not be the fastest card on the market these days, but it's still way more than Episode One should ever need. ( Linky)

And if you can't get a single MHz of an overclock out of your hardware, you may want to run Memtest. There's a good chance you've got some bad RAM. I had the same problem with my desktop where none of my overclocks would test stable, and when I tested the system at stock it was still unstable. 4GB of Corsair XMS2 later and suddenly my Quad can pull an extra 600MHz rock stable.

You may want to look at a bigger power supply, too, 380W might be pushing it a bit.

As for the 3850s, this is the least expensive one; this is the most desirable one, offering performance very close to the 3870.

 

Haha, looks like Neweggs search was getting funky, strange the 3850 wasnt coming up before.

Ran memtest quite a bit, although I am not sure if I ran it before and after the OC.

 

You have the same board I do, and that board does not appear to yield RAM errors easily in memtest86. The RAM I had before ran memtest fine, too, except it wouldn't test OCCT stable at stock speeds. You may want to try testing in OCCT to see if that yields any errors: if it does, I'm 99% sure RAM is the culprit.

 

the 3870 is a good card, but I think the best buy is one of the 8800gt 512mb cards for 250$ only 20$ more than the lowest price of 230$ for the 3870. Benchmarks have the Nvidia card ahead in almost everything and nvidia is doing alot better with driver releases.

The 3850 and 256mb 8800gt just are not up for 1920x1080 gaming, that high resolution kills those lower cards.

This is required reading - http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3175&p=1

That one article has a bit of everything so you can draw your own conclusions, you will be able to notice how the lower memory cards (256mb vs 512mb) have a huge drop in frames when they make the jump to 1920x1080. Also it has some comparisons of ATI vs Nvidia. I have taken this article and then a price search to conclude that the 8800GT 512mb is the best sweet spot for price and performance ratio. If you were going to be only using a lower resolution I would go for the 256mb 8800gt. the 3850 from all the reading I have done is not targeted for gaming really and its not supposed to do that well. The 3870 is good but losing to the 8800gt in most games its saving grace is that its supposed to be a cheaper card by about 50$ and also has less power draw too, but the market right now has it at nearly the same price so it lost its only real advantage.

 

Dunno if to say this, but HL2, runs flawlessly on a 8600m GT, average fps are like 120 - 200...
and when it "dips"it goes to like 80...

btw, the settings are all max, ALL max.

 

What card would be able to do Crysis at about 720p? could a 8600gt handle that, or would I be looking for a 8800?

 

You can do 1280x800 on an 8600M-GT with medium settings or so without any problems. An 8800M-GTX will do 1440x900 with High settings and higher than that with medium-high or medium settings.

 

What a bummer, drove to bestbuy today, and they are completely sold out of the 8800gt still. Played through EP1 and EP2 last night, and while it worked for the most part, having all details and fun stuff turned down so it gets above 25-30fps isnt that fun for gameplay :-/

After I get back from Spain I am getting something of the 8800 flavor from Newegg.

 

All the best buy's near me don't stock high end cards like the 8800's or the ati 2900's and the 3570. I got the superclocked evga from newegg for 50 dollars off and free next day shipping.

 

Well I finally decided on getting the pny 8600gt going for 60 after rebate on newegg right now. Should hit the spot for most stuff, and get about twice the performance of my current passive cooled 7600gt.

 

You wont get 2x the performance for a 8600gt vs a 7600gt. In the laptop cards they are almost the same. For desktops I am sure it will be an upgrade some but not much. For the most part its just a 7600 with DX10 support (the card is very different so dont take that literaly just meaning performance wise)

 

My aging Go 6800 Ultra runs HL2 good at 1680*1050 with high settings and 2x AA. I ran Ep 1 at the same 1680*1050 medium/high settings without AA. Any more than that and it keels over. In both cases I got decent FPS.
My desktops 8800GTX just destroys the game .

 

8800 gtx =)

 

The 8800 GTX really pwns. It's a great card. It's just to bad that probably 6 months from now it'll be obsolete.

 

My go 7800GTX in my old laptop XPS M170 ran Half Life 2 Episode 2 at 1920x1200 all options maxed with 16xAF except no AA and ran at 40 fps The HL2 games are not any demanding games by any means.