Heh, would this shit graphics card run H2V, or should I go with Xbox H2?

[Sel]

Im pondering whether or not to get an xbox with halo 2, or a new laptop

The laptop I have my eye on is an inspiron 5100 with a ATI Mobility Radeon 7500 with 32MB VRAM and Im wondering if anyone would happen to know if thats enough to play it, and maybe get acess to teh good graphics.

[343guiltymc]

Im pondering whether or not to get an xbox with halo 2, or a new laptop

The laptop I have my eye on is an inspiron 5100 with a ATI Mobility Radeon 7500 with 32MB VRAM and Im wondering if anyone would happen to know if thats enough to play it, and maybe get acess to teh good graphics.
o_O urh wasn't the 7500 one of the first card ATI made? I
m not too familiar with laptop GPUs. I doubt it could play halo 1, let alone halo 2. Where the hell did you find that laptop.

[Sel]

o_O urh wasn't the 7500 one of the first card ATI made? I
m not too familiar with laptop GPUs.

I dunno, maybe, but this is like a 3 year old laptop with it, and it can play H1 properly so its probly not.

Also if anyone can tell me if this card runs H2V right would be nice.

ATI RADEON® Xpress1150 with 256MB HyperMemory™

[Knight]

The Xpress 1150 would have much more of a chance running it (Obviously on low anyways) than the 3 year old 7500. If your going to get an Xbox, at least get the 360 Core console.

[Sel]

The Xpress 1150 would have much more of a chance running it (Obviously on low anyways) than the 3 year old 7500. If your going to get an Xbox, at least get the 360 Core console.

I need a new computer anyway, its just Id like to know whether I should get an Xbox too, or if one of these two computers could run it right.

I kinda would like to know for sure before checking it out though, thanks for the helps so far.

[Syuusuke]

It won't.

[Mr Buckshot]

The Radeon 7500 only supports DX7. It won't even come CLOSE to running H2V. I don't know why you say it runs Halo 1 "properly," because Halo 1 would run on fixed function mode... Also the 7500 is based off the Radeon 7000 chipset that was released in 2000.

In fact, the 7500 is so shitty it won't even run a few games that were released before Halo 2.

Go with the xbox version, or buy a new laptop (I'm afraid that if you want a laptop with ANY gaming capability, you will have to shell out at least $800, though $1200+ is more common).

The Radeon Xpress 1150 supports DX9, but it is an INTEGRATED chipset - it will RUN Halo 2, but the framerate will be in single digits - so it's not worth it. Get a laptop with a real video card, like the Nvidia Geforce Go 7600 or the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2600. And any ATI card that uses Hypermemory should be avoided - it means that it steals memory from main system RAM to use as video memory, and that accounts for a poorly performing graphics card.

And of course, never get a computer if the video card carries the Intel brand (don't ask why, you don't want to know).

This is the cheapest laptop I can find for you that will run H2V with a good framerate:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834101048

Either that, or build a desktop, or buy an Xbox 360.

[Sel]

The Radeon 7500 only supports DX7. It won't even come CLOSE to running H2V. I don't know why you say it runs Halo 1 "properly," because Halo 1 would run on fixed function mode... Also the 7500 is based off the Radeon 7000 chipset that was released in 2000.

In fact, the 7500 is so shitty it won't even run a few games that were released before Halo 2.

I dunno what radeon this is, but I know its DX9, but Ill take your word for it that itll probly wont work.

Hmmm, that laptop also doesnt look H2V worthy, from the 1.66GHZ and h2 requires 2 :(

I guess Ill look around some more, and consider maybe getting a desktop.

[Pooky]

Whether it will run it or not, currently Halo 2 Xbox is better than Halo 2 Vista in every single way. Go with H2X.

[Mr Buckshot]

Hmmm, that laptop also doesnt look H2V worthy, from the 1.66GHZ and h2 requires 2 :(

Don't be fooled by the Ghz ratio. This is a Core 2 Duo, not a Pentium 4. To put it in perspective: A 1.86Ghz Core 2 Duo outright pwns and kills a 3.8Ghz Pentium 4. This is because of greater efficiency and just a better architecture. If you don't believe me, go test it out - the 3.8Ghz Pentium 4 will look puny compared to the 1.86Ghz Core 2 Duo.

1.5Ghz for a C2D is more than enough. H2V's supposed "2 Ghz" requirement is only for Pentium 4's. Another example: My laptop uses an Intel pentium M 770 CPU with a 2.13Ghz Ghz rating. Sounds slow, eh? Well, that 2.13Ghz Pentium M beats even a 3 Ghz Pentium 4 because the Pentium M's architecture uses Centrino technology and so on. Ghz ratings are not what they used to be, trust me.

I can see you have a lot to learn about computers, but don't feel bad or insulted, just go read a few magazines, and some internet tech guides, and try to improve yourself when you have the time. I was a noob at PC's too a few years back.

[Sel]

Heh, its one of the few things I havent gotten, I thought duo cores was only for multithreading. (Hey this is what happens when youve been using a single core pentium 3 for the past 4 years <_<)

Anyway, would a computer like this be capable of halo 2?

Im assuming so since it looks like it meets the requirements, just wanna check on the graphics (Really dont like being screwed for that and its always good to have a second opinion.).

AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor 4000+, English (http://javascript<b></b>:to_page_mod(1, 1))

Genuine Windows Vista&#174; Home Premium, English (http://javascript<b></b>:to_page_mod(1, 11))

1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz- 2DIMMs (http://javascript<b></b>:to_page_mod(1, 3))

250GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™ (http://javascript<b></b>:to_page_mod(1, 8))


128MB NVIDIA GeForce 8300GS (http://javascript<b></b>:to_page_mod(1, 6))

16x DVD+/-RW Drive (http://javascript<b></b>:to_page_mod(1, 16))

[Mr Buckshot]

The video card will run H2V decently, but it's an 8300 - it won't perform well if you're planning on playing other PC games like FEAR. Get at least an 8600.

Processor is decent, has the same efficiency as a 4.00Ghz Pentium 4, though it can't compare to even the lowest end desktop Core 2 Duo (a 1.86Ghz model I think).

[Pooky]

Heh, its one of the few things I havent gotten, I thought duo cores was only for multithreading. (Hey this is what happens when youve been using a single core pentium 3 for the past 4 years <_<)

Anyway, would a computer like this be capable of halo 2?

Im assuming so since it looks like it meets the requirements, just wanna check on the graphics.

AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor 4000+, English (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:to_page_mod%281,%201%29)

Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium, English (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:to_page_mod%281,%2011%29)

1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz- 2DIMMs (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:to_page_mod%281,%203%29)

250GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™ (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:to_page_mod%281,%208%29)


128MB NVIDIA GeForce 8300GS (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:to_page_mod%281,%206%29)

16x DVD+/-RW Drive (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:to_page_mod%281,%2016%29)

On XP, I don't know about Vista. But even if you did get it running Halo 2 Vista is still terrible. The controls for the mouse are horrible and sluggish, and they only get worse if you get in a vehicle. You can't crouch without completely stopping all movement, or jumping. There's no key for walking slowly (like in pretty much every PC game), no equivalent of holding down on the D-pad to lower your weapon (having to get rid of all your grenades is lame, plus its pointless because you can't walk with keyboard controls anyway). Firing Banshee bombs is bound to the middle mouse button and gives me a finger cramp, and you can't change it. If you want to play with a controller, it doesn't let you customize your own control scheme, there are no layouts except the default Xbox ones (which sucks for my controller that doesn't even remotely resemble an Xbox 360 controlleR), and you get this horribly annoying auto aim that can't be turned off. I'm sure you've already heard that unless you pay for Xbox live Gold you get a completely mediocre experience, and the game is riddled with other bugs.

Just get Halo 2 Xbox, it doesn't have any of those problems and Live is a much better deal for the money.

[Sel]

Whoa, youre shitting me.

No way to change controls?

I think microsofts #1 priority must be to gay it up or something cuz that is a steamy pile of shit right there.

[Mr Buckshot]

H2V is one of the worst console-to-PC ports ever, yes. Microsoft paid Hired Gun to port the game, and they did a shitty job. It's not the Vista thing that makes H2V suck, it's the horrific optimization (requiring DX9 to run at all when it doesn't even use DX9 well) and controls.

But Microsoft doesn't expect to see many sales coming from the PC versions of the Halo series. Their main priorities for Halo are focused squarely on the Xbox/360. When Halo 3 gets its PC port 2-3 years later, I won't be surprised if it gets a shitty port job too.

[Sel]

Oh dear god, that is shitty.

Have they released a demo for it?

[Pooky]

No, most likely because nobody would then buy the game. :\

[Mr Buckshot]

Another thing to watch out for is that downloading those DirectX drivers from the internet will not make your video card magically become a DX9 card or higher. The DX drivers do little more than occupy hard drive space if your video card doesn't support the specific shader. So your ATI Mobility Radeon 7500 is a DX7 card. You can download the DX9 driver and it'll show up as DX9 on system scans, but hardware-wise you're stuck at DX7 and you can't play games that need DX9 to run.

[TPE]

You don't know how to change the controls? Its the first thing I did when I figured out Tab was grenade...

[Sel]

Another thing to watch out for is that downloading those DirectX drivers from the internet will not make your video card magically become a DX9 card or higher. The DX drivers do little more than occupy hard drive space if your video card doesn't support the specific shader. So your ATI Mobility Radeon 7500 is a DX7 card. You can download the DX9 driver and it'll show up as DX9 on system scans, but hardware-wise you're stuck at DX7 and you can't play games that need DX9 to run.


Whoa that makes me scared what the one in my laptop Im using right now might be D:

[Mr Buckshot]

You have an ATI Mobility Radeon 7500. You're stuck at DirectX7, which is last-last-last-generation. You can download the DX10 drivers but they won't do a thing for you. So besides H2V, you won't be able to play almost every game released after 2003. You can't play splinter cell, FEAR, doom 3, Oblivion, etc. You can run Half-Life 2 but it'll look and play like shit.

What you need is a DirectX9 video card or higher to play H2V.

Like I said, that laptop with the 1.66Ghz Core 2 Duo and Nvidia Geforce Go 7600 is a great deal. You may think that the 1.66Ghz is slow, but these new CPUs' Ghz ratings are meant to be interpreted very differently. For instance, my desktop's AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ runs at 2.2Ghz, but has the same performance as a 3.8Ghz Pentium D (dual-core pentium 4). The 1.66Ghz Core 2 Duo is only a little slower than my current CPU. Go figure. While H2V calls for a minimum of a 2.00Ghz pentium 4, put a 1.6Ghz Core 2 Duo against a 2.00Ghz Pentium 4, and watch the Pentium 4 fall hopelessly behind.

If you can't get a better computer, go with the Xbox version of Halo 2, which is better than the PC version anyway, and includes co-op mode.

[Rosco]

The Xpress 1150 would have much more of a chance running it (Obviously on low anyways) than the 3 year old 7500. If your going to get an Xbox, at least get the 360 Core console.

Can't play original Xbox games without a hard drive.

[Pooky]

You can't change the gamepad controls? Or remove middle mouse as the binding for banshee bomb?
.

[Mr Buckshot]

The Xpress 1150 would have much more of a chance running it (Obviously on low anyways) than the 3 year old 7500. If your going to get an Xbox, at least get the 360 Core console.

Xpress 1150: Run it, yes. Run it with more than 15 fps average, no.

Xbox 360 cannot play legacy Xbox titles without a hard drive (the Core now comes with a 256 MB memory card as standard, but the card has no emulation software).