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"Graphics problems"

My pc has an built in Intel 82845g graphics 64meg shared ram, would a gforce fx5200 64 meg card be better? The system has 512 meg memory, would more memory help? Is there any other ways of getting better performance form my graphics? I was just given prince of persia but it would not run. Is the original half life still in the shops? What specs does it need to run well? Soz for all the questions, any help with any of these would be great.

Half-life 2 on an old FX 5200? BWAHAHA.

You might squeeze out 1 frame per second on lowest setting.

As for half-life 1, it'll run it perfectly.

Never listen to the missus when buying computer stuff, unless she's as tech savvy as you. Just like she never really listens when she asks, "What clothes do you want, dear?" before grabbing that glow in the dark stripey T-shirt from the corner.

Is the original half life still in the shops? What specs does it need to run well?


Yes half life is still in the shops with the generations pack. Gives you everything official from half life for just 20 pounds. Since its xp compatible it should work really well. But if things do go a bit wrong, you could always try and install it in windows 98 mode* in xp.


*I can't be sure its windows 98 mode, but there is a way to install it under that setting and i'm not sure how its done. Something to do with in properties, installation files and the such.

Yep you can upgrade, regardless of anything that says different on the case - (PC World/Dixons/Currys used to stick stickers on the back of the case saying you voided your warranty if you opened the case but they've since found out this is actually illegal to enforce, they still stick the sticker on but they cannot legally void your warranty).

Get a new graphics card, and buy it online. But not from Currys/PC World/Dixons . this site's prices aren't bad.

The system cost £600 and we got an upto date all in one printer, 14inch tft, and all the other bits. The problem is that we actuly got what we paid for( I checked the web for all the deals) but were mislead as we thought we were getting one the same as the display model, we was not told that It was a different model. I know that the small shop would have been better, for £700 we could have got athlon 3000, 1gig ram, 160gig hd, 128meg gforce fx5600( also offered a deal on a cheap upgrade to an 256 meg ati redeon 9800xt), but I could not convince my partner that we could trust this shop. I think that we can upgrade this computers parts, hopefully I can put in a seperate graphics card also it can take 2gigs ram and a bigger hard drive.

Here's an idea, when you mention that you "collected" the PC it sounds as if you got the PC after you paid for it. If this is the case, and the one you were buying had the FX5200 in, then simply take the whole thing back to the store under the trade descriptions act - if you were sold a machine with it in then you should have a machine with it in!

You were lied to, blatantly, by the salesman. You know how it says "shared RAM"? That means it uses 64mb of your 512mb memory, in other words it's not only a bad graphics card but it's also stealing resources from the rest of the PC. The FX5200 would at least stop 64MB of that 512MB from being used, giving you the full 512MB for games. In no way is shared RAM graphics better than having an actual card.

Seriously, if it's within the warranty, and you have the receipt, take the whole thing back.

Plus tell your fiancee that there is no benefit at all to buying a PC from a big store, in fact it's actually a bad thing to do because the components they use are never as up to date as those smaller or independent stores use. Technical support is usually farmed out to some third world country because it's cheaper, whereas small stores use people who, shock horror, actually know what they are talking about (usually). One exception to this rule is, and I know many would disagree, Dell - tech support with them sucks but for a large company you cannot fault the pricing or the specs.

It sounds to me like you were looking at budget(ish) PCs, what kind of price were you looking at? Special Reserve (this site) has some pretty decent budget ones.

Well I did some reserch and found a shop that could build a really pc (much better then what we got) but fiancee wanted to go to a main shop (currys) as she felt it was safer, so if anything went wrong we would have a big name to complain to. ho hum!

When buying a PC you should always do your research. Shared graphics is pretty rubbish now, but then getting a machine with a FX5200 is just as bad.

You should try and get a ATI 9800 Pro if you can get one cheap or a ATI 9600XT. One thing to do is to check you can take the card as its 8x AGP, should still work in a 4x AGP slot.

Actully it ran even with all the details and effects turned to max, it was just a bit slow. When I turned the background detail to min and the reflections to just above min, the other options were left just under max, the shadows off and the triliner mapping (sothing like that anyway) on and it ran really well. I had it on the xbox and it ran just as fast. Also got a demo of firestarter to run with everthing at max and that ran really well and looked really good. Im very confused at the min.

Yes, DX9 is just software. Though it doesn't have any of the features that make DX9 stand out from the previous versions. I'm guessing TOCA2 didn't play too well on your PC?