Orange Box frame rate issues

I recently purchased orange box for my pc, and dowloaded it and all and when i tried to play the three new games(i.e. hl2 eps2, portal, tf2) i got horrible framerate and could barely play on the lowest graphics setting.

I know i have a pretty pitiful graphics card( nvidia 6150SE) but I already had owned hl2 and hl2 eps.1 and they both ran at pretty much the highest video settings on my computer, with no problems what so ever. and just incase it hleps, i have an AMD X2 dual core 4800+ W/2gb of ram and plenty of hdd space.

Does any one know why this is happening? I guess it would make sense if i needed a new graphics card, but i didn't think the graphics would differ that much from hl2 eps.1 to hl2 eps.2 enough to make the game unplayable. And if it is my graphics card, could someone tell a goodone for this game that is under a $100?

Defrag the harddrive

You played hl2 on nearly all high with an onboard video card? What resolution? 400x300?

I think the new ones are using SM 3.0 and HDR lighting so it would probably be better to run the new ones in DX8 mode. I don't know if the 6150 is a DX9 card or not though.Spindoc_SEI

how do i change the version of directx hl2 runs in?

1024X796 rctycoonvet

and i am positive on this one and i am positive i had all setting set to highest quality when playing half life 2, but hl2 ep 2 i can barely run on lowest settings

In Steam, right-click on the game, select properties, then launch options. In the dialog type in "-dxlevel 80" or "-dxlevel 81" without the quotes for DX8 and DX8.1 respectively. To change it back to DX9 just get rid of this line in the launch options dialog. You can even go down to DX7 with "-dxlevel 70"...

You can see what level DX you're running by going to options, video, advanced in-game.

alright, thx, i hope this works

i recently had to fix this same problem on a computer yesterday. go to nvidias website and get the newest drivers for your card. under the notes for the drivers i was downlodading it said something like "improved compatibility with following games: team fortress 2 .. and so on.a_jacks2044

I am pretty sure i have updated my drivers but do you know how to check your graphics card firmware version on a computer

Just like to keep this thread going, I am also having a similar issue. the game slows to a crawl when the action gets intensive.
I'm using 3.4gh P4, 1 gig of RAM, nvidia 6800GT, WinXP, installed latest nvidia drivers. Like the original poster, i played HL2 and ep1 and remember that it ran well at medium high settings. I also tried going down in resolution and setting effects on medium and medium low, but no affect. and lastly load time is also extremely slow too. Any advise is much appreiated. Thank you.

i have the same problem, the other 2 run smoothly at max and at 1024x768 but i tested some options and i can run ep 2 on lower res i play on 800x600 and i have mostly 30 fps and if i play on 640x480 i have more than 45 , i have 6200 128 , 1GB ram and AMD 2800+

The orange box games require a more powerful card than the original HL2 game, which is 3 years old. The 6150 was crap 3 years ago (but HL2 didn't require much) and totally inadequate for todays games.

You need to find out if your PC even supports a dedicated video card (if it has a AGP or PCI-E slot). For 100$ you can find a x1600 (AGP) or a x2600 or 8600GT(PCI-E).

You also got to remember HL2 and EP1 did NOT use HDR (High Dynamic Range). HDR wasfirst usedby Valve with the Signle Level expansion HL2 Lost Coast as a teaser of what to expect in EP2 and future games.jmaster299

Same problem here. Even with 2.4mhz Core 2 Duo, 2 gig ram, and 8800 GTS 640MB. Updating gfx drivers to the latest beta version helped a bit but the game is still unplayable. Change everything to the lowest settings does not help at all. frustrated