HL2 GFFX 5950 DX9

[RGraze]

Why is it when I force the game into DX9 in the target line all the water disappears?
Got a GFFX 5900 biosed to 5950

[MJCfromCT]

Could be many things...do you have the latest drivers? Perhaps something with your card mod doesn't jive well with the game...then again, it could be one of the many reasons the game defaults the FX series to dx8.

[PacNW CE]

because FX cards are for crud when it comes to HL2.

Sorry, but you will have a hard time getting around this problem.

[terence friel]

:mad: fx cards are more than good enough for hl2 i,ihave a 5900xt and it runs well at 1280 x768 ,and my son uses a fx5200 and it runs well at 1024x 768.so a 5950 should definetly work.
i had to update driver to v66.93 to stop missing items apppearing in the game.so it probably is a driver problem.

[MJCfromCT]

Originally posted by terence friel
:mad: fx cards are more than good enough for hl2 i,ihave a 5900xt and it runs well at 1280 x768 ,and my son uses a fx5200 and it runs well at 1024x 768.so a 5950 should definetly work.
i had to update driver to v66.93 to stop missing items apppearing in the game.so it probably is a driver problem.

That isn't the point. Yes, they can run the game fine, but they cannot run the game fine in DirectX9 mode. If you notice, you will see that you and your son are runnin the game in DirectX8 mode. This is because the cards just cannot run the game in dx9.

[MadPistol]

Originally posted by MJCfromCT
That isn't the point. Yes, they can run the game fine, but they cannot run the game fine in DirectX9 mode. If you notice, you will see that you and your son are runnin the game in DirectX8 mode. This is because the cards just cannot run the game in dx9.

He's right. Every review on a Geforce FX line card shows a significant fall in framerate when DX 9 is enabled. In HL2, it really does show unfortunately. The game is truly optimized for DX9, but if you go with DX8 for the Geforce FX cards, you simply lose the reflective water. That's about it. You will get far better performance out of DX8 mode on that line of cards.

[PacNW CE]

If I could go back and edit my post, I would add the aformentioned DX8 vs DX9 issue. So sorry for the confusion.

YES, you can run HL2 on 5xxx hardware. It will be in dx8 mode and will look crappy in comparrison to the dx9 mode.

[MJCfromCT]

http://gear.ign.com/articles/567/567437p1.html?fromint=1

Here's a pretty good review of the differences, they are somewhat noticable, but the game is certainly playable in dx8 mode.

[Rabbitrunner51]

Why force anything..? Just download the latest drivers from Nvidia and see what you get...

The water looks perfect and just fine when I play it and i have a FX5900.

The latest drivers work wonders and make the game look very nice..water and all....

Just go with the latest DX9.0c ..which has support for some of the latest changes ..and I believe the new drivers make some use of these.

[Bigjakkstaffa]

DX8 mode looks fine, i've completed the game on both and R9800 Pro and a Ti4200 and other than the obvious difference in water textures you really would have to be looking hard (i.e. not actually playing the game) to notice the difference between the two

--Jakk:t