How can I check if my graphics chip is "Direct X Level 7 compatible"

[VR46]

Simple reason for asking, looked at HL2 minimum specs at lunchtime, 15 month old lappy is certainly upto the job CPU, Memory wise etc, but onboard graphics chip is probably something Noah designed in his Arc

Is it a simply case of finding the exact chip details and googling to find a "test" to run ?, and is a final version of Direct X 7 still easily downloadable ?

Thanks

[Digfox]

HL2 requirements are a 'DirectX 7 capable graphics card'. However it is talking about the hardware capability's of the card primarily. For example a Nvidia Geforce 6800 series and ATI's X800 are DX9 (effects capable) in hardware and thus the game will look best on that hardware. I know the Nvidia Gefore 4 (4200/4400/4600/4800) Ti series was DX 8.1 compatible, as was the ATI Radeon 8500 etc.

I think you have to back to the Nvidia Geforce 2, Geforce 256, Geforce 2 MX's (I think this also includes the 4 MX series as well) for their older DX7 cards. And ATI's Radeon 7000 and original Radeon cards. Christ there's even a link on the Steam forums to get your Voodoo card to work with HL2.

So I think half-life 2 should run on a reasonable amount of hardware (although the lower you get the less eye candy and smaller resolution you'll get) but I can't seem to find a definative list of compatible GFX cards that you need. Also you wont need to find an old install of Direct X 7, you'll need the latest DirectX from Microsoft to get HL2 to run, which if you haven't got already I'm sure will be on the HL2 DVD or you can get from Microsoft.com

Out of interest what is your GFX card in your laptop?

[Ciaran]

Go to start>run then type dxdiag. In the display tab it will tell you what graphics card you have.

[VR46]

thanks for detailed reply Mgear, graphics tab jpeg attached

[Digfox]

That looks suspiciously like an ?Intel Extreme Graphics Chipset? (one of these integrated graphics chips). Which although it listed as having 64MB video memory, I would guess is actually using system memory for that.

A couple of points spring to mind. If that?s the case and you only have 256MB Ram in the laptop, then this could stop the game from running. If you have more then you may get away with it. I know my Laptop (an ACER Travelmate 291 uses this same chipset and allocates some of the main memory to the graphics chip). Other than that I?ve never run games on my laptop but I have a friend who bought a Dell desktop machine with the same chipset and manages to play Vice City, Halo and Unreal Tournament 2003. But I can?t seem to find a definitive list of Graphics cards that have been tested with HL2. Can anyone else?

Otherwise only thing I can think of, short of buying it of course, is to download Mad Onion?s 3D Mark 2001 and this benchmarking utility will cycle through some DX 8.1 rendered scenes and give you a score for your overall performance. You can then use their same website to see where your laptop compares (i.e. with Geforce 2 Pro?s or something). The 2003 version, because it uses lots of DX9 effects will probably be too intensive. This will probably give enough clues about the this chipset to known if its got the legs to run HL2. Other things such as CPU speed, RAM and bus bandwith will also effect your score in this.

Other than that a friendly placed questions on or look around Overclockers.co.uk forums might get you an answer.

[VR46]

I only have 256 ram and like you say I'm sure it uses the main ram for the graphics also, tried 3D Mark 2003 months ago and half the test's wouldn't even run, will D/L 3DMark 2001 tonight and see how it gets on, was thinking of a memory upgrade anyway so prehaps now is the time ....

Will post some findings tonight, thanks again for your info, wonder aswell if Doom 3 is out of the question, trouble is no-one accepts PC returns so I could buy both and find neither run

[Number45]

You can download a single player demo now for Doom3 mate, but to be honest I wouldn't expect much at all with that setup. At least you'll know without having to fork out!

[Digfox]

Doom 3 is a no-no. At least based on the min specs on the Doom 3 box which lists the GFX cards which will run the game and show the ATI Rad 9000 and Nvidia FX5200 as the lowest cards.

As far as I'm aware, HL2 is much more scalable than D3. I think it's a maybe that might run on the Intel Extreme Chipset but probably in it's lowest graphics setttings. But yes the RAM could be an issue and might be worth upgrading. I'll try and keep looking for a list of cards though.

[Tom Salter]

No way, I saw Doom 3 running on a Voodoo 2 the other day. Highly amusing, but the frame rate was consistently > 30fps!

(Probably because there were no shadows or lighting, AT ALL...)

[Digfox]

No way, I saw Doom 3 running on a Voodoo 2 the other day. Highly amusing, but the frame rate was consistently > 30fps!

(Probably because there were no shadows or lighting, AT ALL...)

The Voodoo 2 was always an awesome card. I remember when I added one to my ATI Rage Pro 8MB and change the settings to OpenGL in the Original HL. To say it changed the game would be an understatement...

Right I'm really intriged to know whether this Intel Chipset would runn HL2 now. I'm gonna d/l 3D Mark 2001 just for a laugh tonight.

[VR46]

You can download a single player demo now for Doom3 mate, but to be honest I wouldn't expect much at all with that setup. At least you'll know without having to fork out!

good point, thanks will do so tonight, wonder when a HL2 demo will come out.

I still have two 8mb SLI Voodoo 2 cards at home, cost me about ?130 each at the time.

[Digfox]

My Acer Laptop (1.4 Pentium M, 512MB Ram ? 266Mhz DDR, Intel Extreme Graphics; Intel(R) 82852/82855 GM/GME 16MB allocated, on Win XP SP2, Direct 9) scored 1865 3D Marks in 3D Marks 2001.

I can?t publish the result because of ?variations? in the CPU speed. Although this is a slightly different variation of the chipset than yours the score is I imagine similar to what you would score. Both variations of the Intel chipset max out at 2,450 to 2,550ish. For reference I used to get 10,500 in my Athlon XP 1800+ and GF4600Ti rig a few years ago.

Anyway I guess yours might score better because this CPU will be holding me back, but the lack of hardware T & L could make HL2 chug along. Certainly D3 will struggle, but as mentioned above you could test the demo, although D3 does state on the requirements of Hardware T & L on the box.

But HL2 could run? My feeling is not very well; low(est?) resolution and low details ahoy. Hope that helps.

http://service.futuremark.com/servlet/Index?pageid=/orb/projectsearch

Edit: Infact looking at other cards/chipsets and this thing really does get beaten by most. Even an ATI 7000 and Nvidia GeForce 1 score more, albeit in more powerful CPU/RAM setups

[VR46]

Just started Downloading Doom 3 demo and 3DMark2001 this morning, so will run them both tonight when I get home and post the results. 2.6mhz CPU should help my score.

Cheers.

PS. Guess you were using the "default" 3DMark settings for your test yeah.

[Digfox]

Just started Downloading Doom 3 demo and 3DMark2001 this morning, so will run them both tonight when I get home and post the results. 2.6mhz CPU should help my score.

Cheers.

PS. Guess you were using the "default" 3DMark settings for your test yeah.

Yes - ran it straight out of the box. Installed it and just clicked the run test button. Tried to shut down all not essential programs running in the background like virus checker, firewall etc.

[VR46]

Do you know how to do the "stress test" in Doom 3 (if there is one) runs OK with detail down etc, not full screen though, too choppy, will upload short vid later so you can see.

Thanks