Anyone have Portal? - GeForce 8400 now installed!

[Snake]

Yesterday I bought "Portal" for my step son for Christmas. I also must admit that I found it quite interesting myself

I was wondering if those of you that have it, if it works alright with basic video cards. I'd like to know if it'll work before he opens it so I can still return it. I made the same mistake with F.E.A.R... I bought it without thinking. Now I'm stuck with it until I get an abled video card.

You see, I'm still stuck in Return to Castle Wolfenstien "days", which is, for me, thinking that anything should work if you put it in 640x400 and shut off all the special effects stuff (which is what I had to do on my older computer). Wolfenstien works great on the computer I've got now in 1024x768 with all the effects on running on the video card that came with it.
F.E.A.R starts up with sound, but no visuals. I'm afraid that Portal will do the same thing.

The minimum specs for Portal are:
1.7 GHz Processor
512MB RAM
DirectX 8 level Graphics Card
Windows Vista/XP/2000

Recommended System Requirements:
Pentium 4 processor (3.0 GHz or better)
1GB RAM
DirectX 9 Level Graphics Card
Windows Vista/XP/2000

I've got:
Intel Celeron CPU 2.40 GHz Processor
512MB RAM
DirectX 9.0c
Windows XP Home Edition
note: The graphics card is the Intel card that came with the computer.

Now my first guess is that it'll work with some alterations in the graphics tab.

But I just want to be sure that it'll even start so I can see the options menu, unlike F.E.A.R, or at least an external graphics setup option.

Thanks in advance.

[nihilyst]

It should work on your PC. However, I think there exists a demo of Portal. How about trying that?

[OneDollar]

I played Half-life 2 on a computer with worse specs than you have, and if you toned everything right down it ran fine. The source engine has changed a bit, and HL2 didn't have portal effects, but you'll probably be alright. Anyway, as nihilyst says demo it

[Snake]

Awesome, guys, thanks! I had thought of that yesterday at one point, but it had since slipped my mind.

Thanks once again!

[i stole your car]

Valve always seems to make their games in a way that will work on the lowest possible system settings that they can manage, yet still keep a cutting-edge feel. Like people have said, try the demo first but you seem to meet the minimum system requirements which means you should definitely be able to get it up and running. If this is the case and you have ANY issues you can fiddle with the graphics tab and I am sure you wont have problems, but even in a worst case scenario, Valve's games usually come with bootup options that can help you run the game even on graphics cards below the minimum system requirements and all Valve games for PC come packed with a developers console that let you adjust refresh rates and almost any aspect of the game if you know how.

Since you have the minimum system requirements I don't think you will have any problems getting the game to run.

[veryweirdguy]

ALSO if it doesn't work upgrade your PC IMMEDIATELY as Portal is awesome.

[Snake]

Welp, I guess it's time to return the game.

I downloaded the demo and it started to load. I got all giddy like a little school girl, cool it's gonna work! Then all of a sudden it aborts and says I need pixel shader v1.1 or higher to run the game.

Fuck. And apparently it's nothing I can download, it comes with todays video cards.

So I'll be googling for some video cards and hopefully find something that isn't outrageously expensive.

You know, this sucks. Even if I spent my life savings on the best video card out there and upgrading my PC to it's fullest, a year from now it'll need to be upgraded AGAIN to run THOSE new games.

Thanks anyway, guys.

[Mantra of Doom]

pixel shader 1.1 is standard now on all video cards. Even of you bought the cheapest one you can find, it will have pixel shader on it. So, this shouldn't be too terribly difficult of an upgrade... and who knows, maybe that other game you have will work now as well?

[Snake]

Right.

Does anyone have any suggestions on any video cards that can run games like Portal and F.E.A.R? I don't want any that are in the hundreds. I was just on the NVIDIA site and all theirs were 3 or 400 something. No thanks.

Oh, before I forget, most importantly, cards that support 320x200 as well - if they even exist anymore, that is.

With the video card I bought for my old computer I had to switch cards every time I wanted to play any game in 320x200. I eventually just took it out since adventure games are more important to me anyway

[Mantra of Doom]

I'm not sure about the 320 x 240 thing as the only thing that stops me from that is Vista and a wide screen monitor. But here is a link to a couple of cheap video card that will get you going. I checked the specs on F.E.A.R. and these should run it and Portal on lower settings, if not normal settings.

This one is AGP

This one is PCI Express

You'll want to make sure you know what type you computer can take, though if it is older, it is probably an AGP.

[BOYD1981]

decent AGP cards are getting increasingly hard to find new these days, and second hand ones are usually overpriced.
nVidia stopped making AGP cards ages ago, the last one being the GeForce 7900. i think that ATi/AMD may still make them however, or atleast were making them until more recently.
depending on how much you want to spend i'd say go for atleast a GeForce 6200 (and i'd avoid anything ended with GS unless it's the 7900GS) or Radeon 9600 (Pro and XT are the better models, XT being the best).
personally i have a 7600GS which is pretty shoddy and i only got it because my 6800GT (very awesome card) went bonkers.
and yeh, Portal is worth playing, i played through it on the Xbox 360 and rather enjoyed it.

[Snake]

I found the GeForce 6200 at Amazon. I read it at NVIDIA and it sounds pretty good, but I can't find reviews. I also love the fact that it's only $44, seeing how we're strapped for money this Christmas.

Is it good enough to run Portal or F.E.A.R? (before I jump the gun and get it)

Also, I've got a Dell Dimension 2400 with only PCI slots, no AGP. I read that PCI graphics cards can't use the RAM on the computer itself, only what's available on the card. If this is true, that kinda stinks since I've already got 512MB and then the 256MB from the card if I get that.
But anyway, it doesn't matter as long as newer games are actually playable.

And thanks Boyd for the suggestions.

[Domino]

I played Portal which came with The Orange Box on the 360.  I really couldn't get into it. My brain hurt after awhile. 

[Mr Flibble]

Portal is the second game on the list which started with "Grim Fandango" for games which utterly blew me away and I enjoyed from start to finish. And was sad when I had completed them.

[BOYD1981]

this is from the FEAR wikipedia article "64 MB GeForce 4 Ti or Radeon 9000 or equivalent with hardware T&L and PS, DirectX 9.0c April edition", so it will be able to run it.
i don't really know much about PCI graphics cards as i haven't used one of those since about 1998, it really is cheap of Dell to not include AGP and really limits the potential for upgrading.
also watch out for cards that are listed as being PCI because some people are a bit thick and will list PCI Express as being PCI cards.
but it seems as if there actually are PCI models of the 6200 so it could be worth getting.

[veryweirdguy]

Portal is the second game on the list which started with "Grim Fandango" for games which utterly blew me away and I enjoyed from start to finish. And was sad when I had completed them.

I CONCUR! Grim Fandango and Portal are OFFICIALLY the best two games ever. They're Flibble approved!

(I would maybe add a couple more to the list, but I'm afraid it's only a two game list ._.)

[LimpingFish]

Also, I've got a Dell Dimension 2400 with only PCI slots, no AGP.

Gank! I have a 5200 and a 6200 lying idle, both AGP, and I was going to suggest I'd let you have one of them on the cheap (ie.nothing!), but then I saw the above statement.

Both of them would run Portal. The 5200 at minimum settings and resolution, but the 6200 at least at 1024x768 medium.

Whether the 6200 can be bought as a PCI I'm not sure (EDIT: It can.). I do know the 5 series can, but none of them are particularly useful these days.

Regardless, it might be a bit of a struggle to find a new PCI video card, so second-hand ones are probably your best bet.

Ignoring all that, there is a way to trick some games into running on Intel Graphics Media Accelerators, which I'm assuming is the (integrated) video chip you have. I don't have the information to hand, though, and it may not even work properly. And that Celeron is your second stumbling block.

F.E.A.R is a beast, and won't run well above 800x600, in my experience anyway, on any system below a 2ghz+ Pentium 4, 1GB+ of ram, and a 256-512mb 6800 or above. Even then all the special screen effects will probably have to be shut off. I have a quad Core 2, 4GB of ram and 512mb 8800GT, and it still can't be run well at maximum settings. Those minimum specs are a dirty lie.

[Ghost]

Put Anvil of Dawn on that list and I'll sign

Snake, I happen to own a low-spec graphics card that seems to have the specs you need- to be precise, it's an ATI Radeon Sapphire 9200 SE "Atlantis". I had it in my PC for a month and then bought a new one (PC, not Radeon), so it's practically new. Did cost me a mint, so I didn't really bother to put it up on eBay or similar.

You pay the postage fee from Germany, Aachen, and it's yours? At least it'll stop collecting dust in me ole shelf.

[LimpingFish]

Yeah, that Radeon would run Portal and (in theory) F.E.A.R.

Like I said though, your Celeron might end up rendering this whole problem moot, as they were never really cut out for graphic intensive/processor intensive gaming (post-RTCW days, anyhow). It'll run most games, sure, but you'll likely struggle to get them to run at enjoyable speeds (especially on anything below a Celeron D).

EDIT: Only two Celeron chips run at 2.4ghz, as far as I can see: The Celeron 2.4, released in 2003, and the Celeron D 320, released in 2005. I honestly can't see the former running Portal and the like well enough to play.

[Domino]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v472/skeith2572/vidcard.jpg

My Video card was acting up..This is what I did to it. Now I am back to using Intel Extreme that came with my computer.

R.I.P.