View Full Version : 9200se and Half life 2
What happened is, I wanted a video card that had dual monitor support. For christmas I asked for a 9200se. I have never played a video game that wasn't made with flash on my computer so I didn't care how fast it was, only that it had dual monitor.
Yesterday I played hl2 on my buddies machine and loved it, so I would like to get it. My concern is that this video card is going to be to crappy.
Does anyone out there use the 9200se for hl2? What resolution do you play at? does it look decent? Is it smoth? How many fps do you get. I was told that it isn't as video card intensive as some other games. and I do have a fast cpu.
Trading this card in is not an option. Please don't post only to rip on the card. I know it's not a good gaming card.
DestructionX
12-21-04, 11:11 PM
I don't think it's going to run very well at all, even at lower resolutions. It is pretty video card dependent. Considering the rest of your system is pretty up to date, I'd recommend getting a 6600 video card, whenever you can afford it, it will be tenfold better for gaming.
Sorry man, but that video card just doesn't have enough grunt to run HL2. SE = bad! I'm no expert though, maybe wait for someone else.
austinbmxnig
12-21-04, 11:35 PM
What did your buddy have? I wouldn't get your hopes up though, i wasn't satisfied with my 9800pro's performance (being on a 3200+ xp wasn't helping the 9800 either)
wizard james
12-22-04, 12:13 AM
WELL.. lets see.. i got a 9800pro flashed to xt (its a software mod that makes the card think its a xt ..when really its pro ..but it runs at xt speeds.. ) ANYways. for a 9200se.. i will tell u what the se ..pro, xt means
se: lowest grade card of all.. only would ever buy this if it was for a company and they didnt need anything like games.
normal (nothing after the name): clockspeeds of the chip.. nothing slower ..nothing faster
pro: a tad faster then normal .. better then the above
XT : light speed.. the unseeable ..THE BEST .. getting xt on anything is a very good thing ..unless your buying nivida ..then it sucks. (this is ati only tho)
now 9200 cards DO NOT have full capabiltys to run dx9 (half life2 recamends it) at lowest ..since i dont think you would have all that money. get a 9600xt ..they will play hl2 . i got a 9800xt ..very good card ..i also got a 9600xt ..very good card to ...i also had a 9200se.. that lasted for about a week.
sorry about the spelling.. never was good at the bigger words
bobburn
12-22-04, 12:31 AM
i'd recommend either an x800 pro if you have enough money, if your more budget conscious go for the nvidia 6600gt, it's pretty damn good.
CandymanCan
12-22-04, 12:32 AM
Cant you maybe scroung up the curage to ask for a maybe a 6600GT or somthing similer ? The 9200SE will prob run the game just not very well
micamica1217
12-22-04, 01:55 AM
Yesterday I played hl2 on my buddies machine and loved it, so I would like to get it. My concern is that this video card is going to be to crappy.
Trading this card in is not an option. Please don't post only to rip on the card. I know it's not a good gaming card.
while others have said to get a newer card, how about trying the new demo of the game?
see how it runs on your system, then buy it if you like it.
almost any game site has it...just test it and see.
BTW, it should run in DX8.0 mode at 800x600...find out for yourself.
mica
while others have said to get a newer card, how about trying the new demo of the game?
see how it runs on your system, then buy it if you like it.
almost any game site has it...just test it and see.
BTW, it should run in DX8.0 mode at 800x600...find out for yourself.
mica
I think I will try the demo before I buy it, 800x600 is aweful. I was really hopeing someone would reply to this post and tell me everything will be ok, I guess I was just dreaming,
thanks everyone
btw if anyone has the 9200se and has tryed hl2, please still let me know how it was.
My friend works at a local computer store and we set up half life 2 on a bunch of comcraps and dells. The video cards ranged from a 9200 se to a 9800 xt. It seemed to work great on eery machine. The game looked almost as nice on all the machines and ran just as nice on all machines. You may not be able to play with all the eye candy and such but I think you could easily get away with 1024x768 in lower quality modes. Escpially with a little tweaking. That's just what I've seen anyway.
sorry to say this m8 but it wont even run fine in 648x480 with all at low...SE cards man thoes su*ks ...and thats the bottleneck so go and buy a better GFX
Yuriman
12-22-04, 10:04 AM
There really is no way to tell without trying, but the 9200se has 64bit ram meaning what will really kill it is high resolutions and large textures. You may very well end up running 640x480 to get textures above a blur, but it may run well at 1024-medium.
There really is no way to tell without trying, but the 9200se has 64bit ram meaning what will really kill it is high resolutions and large textures. You may very well end up running 640x480 to get textures above a blur, but it may run well at 1024-medium.
after my experiences with a 9200se , there is no way in hell it'll be able to even run 1024 on medium.
edit : it might even get like 20 fps even on low setings on 640x480. does your system even have an agp slot? if not , don't even try to attempt to upgrade that thing. like others said , this game is tough on your graphics card. to whoever suggested downloading the demo and playing that , i reccomend you to do that.
Yuriman
12-24-04, 10:22 AM
I just say that because currently I am running an mx440se with 64bit ram, and I can run ut2004 at 1024 medium-high and C&C Generals on max graphical settings (with a massive overclock heh). Also, my grandpa has a radeon 9100 that runs half life 2 at 1024 max settings 60fps. If the 9200se is only 1/3 it's speed, it can still pull 800x600 medium easily.
cool thanks guys check back in a day and I'll let you know what it does, if anyone cares
[DAD]MeR|iN
12-24-04, 08:39 PM
you can always pick up a saphire Radeon 9800Pro for pretty cheap and if you get the 256bit version, the saphires generally use the R360 core and you could get some aftermarket cooling such as the VGA silencer and maybe some ram sinks and flash the bios to an XT, thats what i did, saved me money and got me a great card, runs hl2 pretty darn good imo
electrorcamd
12-24-04, 09:51 PM
The 9200se should be able to run it at a lower resolution with a lower detail level. I have never played Half-Life 2, so it can't tell how the card would do on that. I have used an emachines with a Celeron D 330 (2.66GHz) with 512MB of RAM and a 9200se (Diamond Stealth S80). It can play all the games that my computer can and I have an FX5700LE that can get a major overclock. It plays all the games at the same resolution and graphics detail levels as my system can, so it is not that bad with a good processor.
Overclocker550
12-25-04, 01:27 AM
"Trading this card in is not an option. Please don't post only to rip on the card. I know it's not a good gaming card."
I think he doesnt want us to call his card crap. also hes keeping the card cause he needs dual monitor. anyway your 3.6GHz p4 would be like a stock 3000+ to 3200+ winchester so its fast enough to run hl2. your gpu will be some what of a bottleneck, perhaps as good as a geforce2 pro so I recon you could get 800x600 medium details or 640x480 high details. if you want 1600x1200 high details, a nice overclocked 9700pro will fit the bill :)
even a ti42-4800 will play it descently in dx 8 mode. I got a 5800nu a few months back for a great price ($99 new in box shipped) and it did great although it was dx 8.1 The only other prob was aa or af killed it. You can get a great sub $100 card to play it on, but I tried it on my buddys 9200 and it was brutally slow. It almost dosent seem like the same game when you have to dumb it down that much just to get even sub par playing levels.
Now the SE is 64mb 64bit correct ? well it depends on which SE u have.
the SE comes at 200/330, AGP 8x.
but there are also SE's that come at 200/400, My 9200 is currently 285/235, which yes is overclocked
My card runs HL2 pretty good at 800x600, if ur looking for a playable graphics with very minor lag you will be fine.
but can u give us a lil more info on the card
OK so I fired it up.
NOTE: I am not a hard core gamer. This is the first game ever on my computer so my opinion of what is good will most certainly be less then yours(especially the guy who recomended the x800 pro, ha)
I plays at 1024x768 on medium settings and looks pretty good to me. I dont know how many fps, nor do I know how to find out, but it doesn't get choppy, altough I have only played about 1 hour of the game and havn't gotton to any crazy parts with lots of shoting and such. Anyway it's good enough for me. If anyone knows an easy way to check how many fps I get, could you let me know
Overall I am happy, I got my dual monitors and I can play at least one cool game. Thanks all for your help.
ps2cho: it is 128mb with 64bit powercolor 9200se. I can't even find out what the gpu and ram run at all i got off the website was this:
GPU RADEONTM 9200SE
Memory 64/128 MB 64-bit DDR SDRAM
AA Samples Per Second 3.2G samples/sec
Memory Bandwidth 2.7 GB/sec.
Pixel Pipelines 4 pixel pipelines
Pixel Fill Rate 0.8G pixels /sec.
Support DirectX 8.1
Support OpenGL 1.3
RAMDACs 400 MHz DACs
Output DVI-I / TV-Out / D-Sub
Operating systems : Microsoft® Windows® XP, Microsoft® Windows® 2000
Bus AGP 4X/8X
PS. DON'T get a Logitech mx1000 mouse, they SUCK. It jumps all around my desktop for no reason. Very upset
you can download a program called fraps, just do a search and it will come right up. It will show you the fps of just about anything that puts your card in 3d mode.
you can download a program called fraps, just do a search and it will come right up. It will show you the fps of just about anything that puts your card in 3d mode.
thanks Im checking that out now
Overclocker550
12-27-04, 06:55 PM
your 9200se runs that game better than I had expected. In this case, I should easily be getting 1600x1200 high details with my 9700 since its not 64 bit ram but 256 bits and a much faster core. My ti4200 should do 1280x960 high details which is one resolution above your 9200se and more details. I have been told that hl2 wont run well unless I get an x800pro/xt but I laugh at them, why should I waste money when a 9200se flies in hl2 and my card is so much faster? itll almost be overkill......
Id' have to agree...that card will run it fine. Heck, my Intel Extreme 1 on my laptop can run HL2 O_O
wizard james
12-28-04, 04:03 AM
well, ..i will disregard what you guys said about the card being fine.. for now .. let me explain
well ..i just finshed playing 5 hours of hl2 ..great game. ..i just got the shotgun for them who have played it..
i got a 9800pro flashed xt at the speeds below. i use the lastest drivers ..and i got a nice rig to boot. but after 2-3 hours of play i started getting alot of lag ..i think theres a memory leak somewere.. a patch might come out soon.
now ..i guess.. i got a 9800xt ..and it still has a tad hard time playing hl2 with all the settings on high ..if you play with all the settings on low.. you might be able to get buy if u can flash a 9200se to pro or xt ..
wizard james - I think their was a little sarcasm in the last couple posts.
wizard james
12-28-04, 04:13 AM
just for the hell of it..i pulled out a old ati rage 3d pro and tossed it into my computer..
it played hl2 just fine.. if you like to go slow mo and cheatlol
its nice, you can shoot at something and go eat, come back and find out if you hit it or not
I got the fps from fraps, thanks Nandro. I ran it 2 times
Frames Time (ms) Min Max Avg
1887 60000 17 111 31.45
and
Frames Time (ms) Min Max Avg
2142 60000 18 79 35.7
far from great, but I found it liveable. These tests were done with my comp at 3.0
wizard james - I think their was a little sarcasm in the last couple posts.
My Intel Extreme Graphics 1 seriously runs the game fine...dips to 10fps sometimes but it can run most of it well, and hl2dm
wizard james
12-28-04, 11:10 PM
how do u know the fps? .. how do u get it up?
I normally would say the 9200 wouldn't be able to play anything at any reasonable framerate, but I've heard so many tales (and now yours included) of it running far better than expected on bad hardware. A big thumbs up to Valve for the job they did! :)
/me is currently playing HL2 on a 4200 @ 1280x960 2xAA, full in-game graphics options (for DX8 anyway :D) at an average of ~30FPS. I'm not suprised at all after seeing this at your card doing that well :D
JigPu
Overclocker550
12-29-04, 01:14 AM
good god, 1280x960 with some aa/af at playable fps on an old school ti4200! That means my softmodded 9500 should easily run 1600x1200 all details maxed out but no aa/af and if it cant do that, I will put my ti4200 in and see if its faster, if it is, my 9500np is for sale, seriously if my ti4200 outperforms it in hl2. I know I can run farcry at 1280x960 high details and get 30fps average on my ti4200. I really hope my softmodded 9500np overclocked near 9800pro speeds is faster and more than by 10% too! am I wrong on this???????
I read through this whole post and think that some of you really didnt need to reply with what you did. Anyways, not everybody needs to have the latest and greatest hardware to have a good time. If you arent somebody who keeps up with these things and doesnt play games everyday then playing HL2 even on medium to low settings will still be impressive. You guys who are convinced that your X800 and 6800 based cards are required just need a reason to justify your $300-$600 investment. Believe me, if I wanted the card and found it neccesarry to have it I would have bought the card already, but I am one who buys the best price/performance card at the time that I feel that it is needed. Jaydog, your 9200SE is less than ideal for HL2, but if it is all that you have and can justify then make due with it. HL2 will drop its settings to run on it and as long as you are happy then who cares... right?
Overclocker550
12-29-04, 03:00 AM
I normally would say the 9200 wouldn't be able to play anything at any reasonable framerate, but I've heard so many tales (and now yours included) of it running far better than expected on bad hardware. A big thumbs up to Valve for the job they did! :)
/me is currently playing HL2 on a 4200 @ 1280x960 2xAA, full in-game graphics options (for DX8 anyway :D) at an average of ~30FPS. I'm not suprised at all after seeing this at your card doing that well :D
JigPu
wow thats a nice ti4200 you got. ok what cpu do you have, whats it clocked at and what clocks are your ti4200 because it sounds like ti4200s are faster than 9700pros. my ti4200 games at 320/700 minimum clocks. Yes I made another thread on this because I honestly am supprised by how fast your ti4200 performs, is it really as good as a 9700pro? edit: read my other thread on it, someone in another forum linked me and now I know. a ti4200 is still a very, very good and capable gpu reguardless of it being behind a 9600xt+
how do u know the fps? .. how do u get it up?
I just downloaded fraps like Nandro said, with it open an a game running hit F11 to benchmark. Then go to the fraps install directory and you will see the results
Model Detail : High
Texture Detail : High
No Antialisaing
Water Detail : Reflect World
Shader Detail : High
Shadow Detail : High
Filtering Mode : Trilinear
Wait for vertical sync : disabled
Video Stress Test 800x600:
Average Framerate = 52.33fps
My frequencies in my sig
RJARRRPCGP
12-30-04, 08:09 PM
The Radeon 9200SE sucks, because not only are the bits lower, the clock frequency for the RAM is insanely low, no higher than a GeForce 2's!!!
Thanks RJARRRPCGP! that sure did help the conversation
RJARRRPCGP
12-31-04, 04:00 PM
The RAM is only at 166 mhz!!! Thus even if it's DDR, it won't get you far.
Hey guys, he knows it's not the best card in the world so stop cutting it up and just try help him the best he can out of it.
From the first post:
Trading this card in is not an option. Please don't post only to rip on the card. I know it's not a good gaming card.
Speaking of clock speeds, have you tried overclocking it? Disable fastwrites and see what you can get it up to. That should help a bit when you get into the more graphically complex levels.
Thanks JCLW, I am going to try to oc it. Just for fun, I don't think it's going to oc well but Ill throw a fan on it an see what it'l do. Yeah thats right it only comes with a sink on it. I have never tryed to oc a video card before. I don't even know how to. I have some reading ahead of me.
Without sounding like a total noob. What is fastwrite and how do I disable it?
btw - hl2 rules, awesome game
Thanks
http://img10.exs.cx/img10/7489/fastwrite0xd.gif
Try benchmarking with them on vrs off. I find there is hardly any difference at a given speed, but most people (including me) can overclock significantly higher with them turned off.
Thanks for the advice. I just ran 3dmark01 at stock(200/166) and scored 4093. Weak. I downloaded the modded drivers and slapped a fan on it. I am running ati tool overnight. I'll let everyone know what I got it up to tommorow.
It actually didn't oc that bad. I got it running 303/197. I guess the fan really did help, I can't belive I got an extra 50% out of the core. I bet some ramsinks would help out but Im not gonna spend any money on this card. It bumped up my 3dMark01 from 4093 to 5296. Not bad for what it is.
Nice job :) The 8500s, 9100s, and 9200s all share the same core, and most will do around ~300mhz. The memory speed, of course, depends on the memory you have. I'm lucky enough to have Infineon 3.6ns BGA on my LE which overclocks well.
Do you notice a difference in HL2 with the overclock?
Ya, I wish the ram would do more but the oc helped tons, My last benchmark with Fraps was livable, but now I can use my onboard 5.1 sound and it dosn't slow it down.
These are at the same resolution and detail level as my ealier post, and these ones have my 5.1 enabled where the last one didn't. Way better!
Frames Time (ms) Min Max Avg
2680 60000 24 133 44.667
Frames Time (ms) Min Max Avg
3625 60000 24 126 60.417
Yuriman
01-02-05, 05:33 PM
Nice job :) The 8500s, 9100s, and 9200s all share the same core, and most will do around ~300mhz. The memory speed, of course, depends on the memory you have. I'm lucky enough to have Infineon 3.6ns BGA on my LE which overclocks well.
Do you notice a difference in HL2 with the overclock?
Not true. The 8500 and 9100 share a core, but the 9000 and 9200 do not use the same one. The one on them is cut down and and about 20% slower per clock. I believe it is in teh TMU's, the 8500/9100 are 4pipe/2tmu while the 9000 and 9200 are 4/1.
Not true. The 8500 and 9100 share a core, but the 9000 and 9200 do not use the same one. The one on them is cut down and and about 20% slower per clock. I believe it is in teh TMU's, the 8500/9100 are 4pipe/2tmu while the 9000 and 9200 are 4/1.
I never knew that before - I thought it was just the added AGP 8x support. Well you learn something new everyday :)
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