? quoting Dark Tree

What is a bench utility?

the Webster definition

essentially, its a program that analyzes your machine and rates it in order to establish its power/performance to a certain degree.

it gives you a rough idea how your system rates to other peoples machines.

dude, i read this multiple times and its still not clear. can you explain better please.

i cannot tell if you are pissed or thankful or both :/

and WTF is a commit charge?

Lol. Sorry. I was saying thank you....in a kind of roundabout way. What I meant was......I disabled a whole bunch of services on my computer (about 30) that made my computer run faster and freed up a bunch of my ram. However, in doing so, one of those services was controlling my internet connection, so I had to re-enable that service to get back online. Other than that little mistake, the tweaks really did help my computer.

Oh...and commit charge is...well, basically the physical ram. Click this link for a quick def.

Hey guys. I have been having some problems (or not) playing Half-Life 2 with the amount of fps I want. I have been tweaking my computer and Half-life 2 settings and cvars to optimize it but I still don't get where I want to be...

Here is my system:

DirectX: 4.09.00.0904 (DirectX 9.0c)
System Memory: 512 MB (PC3200 DDR SDRAM)
Video Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700LE (256 MB)
Audio Adapter: Creative EMU10K1 SB Live! Audio Processor
Hard Drive: Maxtor 6Y160P0 (160 GB, 7200 RPM, Ultra-ATA/133)

And I have a 23" Apple widescreen display (1680 x 1050)

I have to run the game with these settings:

Textures: Medium
Models: Medium
Shader: off
Resolution: 1680x1050
Water detail: reflect simple

Even with all this I still get really low fps....gets almost to choppy too play around water. I don't use my flashlight in the game because it slows things down noticeably....I don't know the exact fps I am getting but it isn't as smooth as I thought it should be. I do have bump map enabled but I think I only get around 20-30 fps if I have my flashlight on AND around water.

Anyway...gotta run, but might edit this post later with more info....sorry if this is confusing but it just doesn't seem that the game is running at its potential.

IS it possible that it is the high resolution that kills it? Does anyone else have a widescreen display that plays Half-Life 2? I can run the game at 1024x768 with a fixed aspect ratio on my screen but it isn't much better. Thanx guys.

edit:

would adding another stick of 512 memory help me? If so...which should I get?

also, things are even worse when I play Doom3. However...I can play Painkiller with all details and graphics max with NO PROBLEM. 60 fps in that game around water, multiple enemys and what-have-you. The biggest problem always seems to be dynamic lighting that kills my system....I dunno...

I have the anti-aliasing turned off...and I have turned off almost all services except the neccesary ones to run my comuter....

EDIT:

How is my processor and video card? Are they decent comparatively to others?

/ponders

you know, unless someone has a really big nVidia card, they all seem to say "I am not getting the results i want"

perhaps HL2 just likes Radeon better?
perhaps these people want to much?
perhaps Radeon people are more easily satisfied.

I get s**tloads of frames now on my new PC, but i would have been happy playing at a solid 30fps on my old one. all the time i hear people complain about not achieving a solid 60fps and i just look at the monitor and wonder "WHY?, you obviously got better than 30"

*shrugs*

perhaps that why i am dancing so much now. i got my 30 and then some.. maybe, showing my dedication to a game i could not play for more than 15-20 minutes for over 5 years has paid off, cause now i can frag for an hour with no ill effects of note.