Need help tweaking HL2 on 9600XT 256 meg

[Gwarsbane]

Here is my computer.

Windows XP SP2 with all current updates
Windows screen res is 1024x768x32bit color
AMD XP1800+ (1.53ghz)
HIS Radeon 9600XT 256meg video card
5.3 Catalyst drivers (not the dot net ones)
768megs of DDR 333mhz ram
Asus A7S333 motherboard (latest flash)
WD 160gig 8meg cache hard drive (not my primary drive)
HL2 Collectors edition (I couldn't pass up the deal 50 bucks Canadian new and unopened from store (4 hour sale)
Use Fraps for getting FPS

I use a few antispyware, antivirus and antitrojan programs. What one won't catch others do so I am pretty well protected.

There is 0 spyware on my system
There is 0 viruses on my system


In game my settings were (to start off with)

1024x768

Model detail
High

Antialising Mode
none

Texture Detail
High

Filtering Detail
trilinear

Water Detail
simple reflections

Shader Detail
High

Shadow Detail
High

Wait for verticle sync
disabled

I got about 29fps in kill box. everything was nice and smooth. I go into Overwatch and my fps drop down to about 15fps, which makes it unplayable because it gives me motion sickness.

I turn it to 800x600 and turn all the highs into lows and I now get about 26 or 27 fps over all, there are afew places that cause it to slow down more or if I turn quick.

It don't look as good as when it was up on 1024x768 and the lows set to high. So I'm not looking for massive FPS increase. If I could get the 1024 upto 30 or 40 fps (just so I don't get motion sickness) I would be more then happy. Heck even if I could get 1023x768 with the settings on low I would be happy.


I will be trying the 5.1 catalyst drivers because I have heard that HL2 runs better with them.


So any suggestions as to what I should try?

[Zerox]

Definately something wrong, you should be getting at least around the 60-70fps from my experience.

Edit :: Well, I'm getting my Radeon 9600XT 128M today, so i'll see what you should be getting, since I have nearly the same specs as you (bit better).

[fritoman]

I have all my settings on low, and am very happy with the looks of the game.....but then again I have never played on a computer that will run it on high, and my fps is around 35. thats with my cheapy card, Gforce MMX 440, <--(which I bought for around 40 bucks:Pnew) AMD XP 2400+ 2.00 GHz 768 of ram.

[evil_admin]

GB,

I have the same video card, a P4 1.6 GHz with 1.5 GB of RAM and am getting aroudn the same FPS as you, maybe a tad lower. I am in the process of building a newer desktop with faster processor and 2GB of RAM but it would be nice to be able to tweak this video card some and get better FPS.

If I am successful in improving the FPS I will share.

desNotes

[NITRO!]

I've got around 40fps with these settings:
AMD Athlon XP 2600+ (~2GHz)
Asus Radeon 9600XT 128Mb
2x512Mb Kingston ValueRAM DDR400
Abit NF7 Mainboard
Original Catalyst drivers v5.2
Windows 2000 SP4

1024x768x32

Model detail
High

Antialising Mode
2x

Texture Detail
High

Filtering Detail
8xAF

Water Detail
Reflect all

Shader Detail
High

Shadow Detail
High

Wait for verticle sync
Enabled

So I think there must be something wrong with your comp..

[Gwarsbane]

I installed the catalyst 5.1 drivers last night and they seem to have helped alittle. I will do more testing with them tonight.



Someone on the steam forums suggested putting +mat_bumpmap 0 +mat_specular 0 into my launch options for HL2DM, but I really didn't see much of any difference.

[Power and Glory]

I think your CPU is a big factor. Your trying to run too many things on high when you CPU is not too much above the minimum requirements which is a 1.2