Problems with Portal's Graphics

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Ehqz
7 Posts
Posted May 10, 2008
hi, I've been in this forum for a while checking out maps and other things regarding Portal. So I decided to make an account. I want to ask why does My Portal Game has limited Graphics level? There's no reflection on the gun, turrets, and cubes. There's no motion blur. My Portal's Animation sucks, its all plain Oval. simple sided portal. My graphics card is Nvidia Geforce Fx 5500. If I have to change my video card, is there any other way to enable those features? Hope for your feedback guys I'll be waiting for it. Thanks in advance ^_^
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Hober
1,180 Posts
Posted May 10, 2008
Replied 54 minutes later
Just a quick browse of the spec sheet for the Fx 5500, it looks rather limited. Is it the 128MB model? If so, that's your basic problem. Graphics card have a sort of weird bell-shaped price versus quality graph. Looks like the Fx 5500 retails for about $50, whereas a $100 dollar card would probably be almost literally twice as good.

I think it's a sort of testament to the Source engine that it will run on so much hardware. However, if you want super-cool effects, I think you're going to have to shell out some green.

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Ehqz
7 Posts
Posted May 10, 2008
Replied 15 minutes later
Yes its 128mb model, well it seems like I really Need to buy a new video card T_T, Any tips? is Geforce 256mb model enough for the game?
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Hober
1,180 Posts
Posted May 10, 2008
Replied 1 hour later
That's what I'm rocking: a 7600 GT with 256. Also, a 3 GHz Pentium 4. Those run the Source games as smooth as I could wish. I have to tweak down Company of Heroes, but that's because it's an incredibly detailed game.
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PortalFan77
432 Posts
Posted May 10, 2008
Replied 51 minutes later

Stop recommending DX9 hard ware......

DX10 Geforce 8600GT or higher specs, you see Higher pixel Pipelines and with DX10 they will out do any DX9 or below card.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=x7aPvedU7cI

Get the EVGA Version of any of them

If you are running off of AGP go buy a new Mobo for $100-$150 and if you wanna save some money get a NON SLI Mobo.

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Ehqz
7 Posts
Posted May 10, 2008
Replied 2 hours later

Well Thanks for the recommendations. I'll try to figure out how could I buy A new Computer.
Because My PC suck T_T

Quote:
OS: Windows XP
Processor: AMD Athlon XP 1700+ 1.5ghz
Memory Ram: DDR2 1Gig
Video Card: Nvidia Geforce FX 5500
Directx Version: Software 9 / Hardware 8

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Number1SuperGuy
18 Posts
Posted May 10, 2008
Replied 4 hours later
The cheapest way to do it is to build the computer yourself, but it seems like you probably don't have experience in that area, and it's really not something you should try for the first time by yourself.

If that isn't an option you should use an online computer building site that doesn't rip you off too much. My favorite would be: http://www.ibuypower.com If price is no object there are much better sites out there, but if you want value this is the place to go.

It's a lot safer to pick your parts here if you don't know what you're doing because you'll always end up with a functioning computer, however, if you can tell me how much you want to spend I'll gladly design one for you.

A few quick questions, will you be needing a monitor or a wireless network adapter? Also, will you need software like Vista and Microsoft Office?

EDIT: I threw one together real quick, I added a wireless adapter but no monitor or software. It ends up being $671 (before shipping) and it will play all games out right now. It'll run Crysis on medium settings. I also picked the Black Edition for the processor because those are EXTREMELY easy to overclock (like you just open your bios and change 2 numbers) so you end up getting the most bang for your buck. Anyways, here it is:

http://www.ibuypower.com/ibp/Store/Conf ... c=1328234

&&

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PortalFan77
432 Posts
Posted May 10, 2008
Replied 5 hours later
Here is an even better Idea, go buy a Premade HP computer, then modify the crap out of it, that is what I did and i can play Crysis on High.
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Hober
1,180 Posts
Posted May 10, 2008
Replied 3 hours later
Notice how SuperGuy gives costs and specifications for the computer. Just saying "Build a better computer to play better games" is not, on the whole, helpful.
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rellikpd
1,053 Posts
Posted May 10, 2008
Replied 12 minutes later
img
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Ehqz
7 Posts
Posted May 11, 2008
Replied 5 hours later
@Number1SuperGuy: I have experience on building my own computer trust me. ^_^ And No I dont need a new monitor.

Well I was planning on buying a AMD 780 motherboard with a build it powerfull video card.

Black edition? easy to overclock? Ahh thats my my big bro really wanted that proccessor ahaha. For the record he bought it but never overclocked it.

@Hober: actually SuperGuy really helped

@rellikpd: ????

Well Thanks Guys for the recommendations and tips. Im making a list now.
I think I should have a budget of Php 15,000 "php 40 per $1" it is heavy for my pocket.

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Cooper
129 Posts
Posted May 11, 2008
Replied 1 hour later
I can get portal to run on high with a Nvidia GeForce 7500 LE, which is a horrible graphics card by today's standards. In fact, you won't find it listed on Nvidia's site, because it's so bad. My laptop's ATI Radeon X1600 outperforms it.
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Tigger
100 Posts
Posted May 11, 2008
Replied 32 minutes later
If you've got $170 clams to spare: ECS N8800GTS-512MX GeForce 8800GTS

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... %2b8800gts

$169 after rebate + tax and shipping. I just picked one up and actually replaced my 8800 GTX with it. Loads quieter. Has the 65 nm GPU. Less power draw so you don't need to upgrade a PSU past 400W. And it runs as well as my 8800 GTX did. Graphics are as good. At least I can't tell the difference. I am so happy I got this card!

&

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Number1SuperGuy
18 Posts
Posted May 11, 2008
Replied 19 hours later

Ehqz wrote:
I think I should have a budget of Php 15,000 "php 40 per $1" it is heavy for my pocket.

Hmm... At that exchange rate you'd end up with $375 which won't buy you much of a computer... But really, you could buy just about any video card/processor that's still being manufactured and play portal well so I'd say just look for the cheapest parts you can find. Post those here and we'll let you know if they'll do the job :biggrin:

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Ehqz
7 Posts
Posted May 12, 2008
Replied 3 hours later
okie thanks guys, I'll be taking a look around on some PC parts shops here..
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NocturnalGhost
200 Posts
Posted May 12, 2008
Replied 5 hours later
One thing you may need to check is which graphics card slot you have. Most newer graphics cards are for PCI-Express-x16 slot, but your motherboard may only have an AGP slot.

If you have an AGP slot, you are more limited in the cards you can buy, as they are becoming more of a rarity nowadays.

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Fusion
77 Posts
Posted May 13, 2008
Replied 22 hours later

NocturnalGhost wrote:
If you have an AGP slot, you are more limited in the cards you can buy, as they are becoming more of a rarity nowadays.

I've got an old AGP slot motherboard. I managed to find an AGP Radeon X1950 Pro which is about the highest level of card before they stopped making them for AGP slots. I couldn't find any decent NVIDIA AGP cards.

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Kinkycuff
31 Posts
Posted May 24, 2008
Replied 11 days later
User has been banned for this post. --msleeper
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BMRepresentitave114
2 Posts
Posted Jul 08, 2008
Replied 1 month later

Cooper wrote:
I can get portal to run on high with a Nvidia GeForce 7500 LE, which is a horrible graphics card by today's standards. In fact, you won't find it listed on Nvidia's site, because it's so bad. My laptop's ATI Radeon X1600 outperforms it.

thats probably laggy, i have an 8600 card and i only run medium stats, and even then i have to use mouse smoothing to stop the pc from making laggy movements.

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Doomsday192
371 Posts
Posted Jul 08, 2008
Replied 4 hours later
AGHAGHGAHGA BUMPS :evil: