Halo 1 & 2 for PC
This topic has moved here: Subject: Problems with Halo & NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 128MB
  • Subject: Problems with Halo & NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 128MB
Subject: Problems with Halo & NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 128MB
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The game quits on startup repeatedly with an exception & there is no fix on the Microsoft site. Seems to be worse on 1024x768 85Hz than on 800x600 60Hz. Sometimes have to try 3 times before game will start. Tried re-installing everything to no avail.

To play this game AT ALL with this low-end NVIDIA card, I had to experiment with various startup settings suggested by MicroSoft on their Halo website.

Would not recommend this card to anyone for playing 1st person shooters.

Anyway, to make the game playable, create a shortcut to start the game, right click on shortcut, select properties & specify "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo\halo.exe" -use11 in "Target" field. This turns off specular and one of the other lighting effects & speeds up the game from a crawl to super fast. None of the other possible settings seemed to work except for -useFF which turns off most everything.

What a bummer. NVIDIA is supposed to make OK video cards & Windows XP & Halo are both from MicroSoft - what gives?

My PC is a brand-new DELL with 512MB RAM, SATA hard drive, 3GHz CPU - the works.

  • 06.17.2004 6:16 PM PDT
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StarBucks330ia

There's the problem there, you have a low end video card. Reason for the exceptional errors is because your graphic card can't take the heat. Sure the video is made by Nvidia, one of the best video card maker ever and the guys behind the Xbox graphic BUT, what you got is a business graphic card made for people using Microsoft Office, E-mails, and other programs that doesn't require using alot of 3D graphics.Its cheap because its cheap for the businesses to buy them in bulks. Although the ads on the box looks nice, but believe me, it is just a lie and BS. What you need is aanything that is a Radeon 9600 pro and up. Right now I'm using a radeon 9800 pro and playing the game at 1280x1024 on a 2.0GHz P4 CPU and thats way less then what you have. Once you put a better video card, it will make you throw your Halo Xbox version just like how some people did.

[Edited on 6/17/2004 10:18:37 PM]

  • 06.17.2004 9:56 PM PDT
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Thank You! Didn't understand why ATI was worth the extra money. Not withstanding buying the "utimate supreme" $500 256MB ATI Radeon card, there SHOULD be other less expensive gaming cards that do the job. My faith is restored.

  • 06.20.2004 5:43 AM PDT
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  • 06.20.2004 10:25 AM PDT
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I have the ASUS version of the FX 5200 card. It's the V9520 TD version. My setup is an AMD 2500+ with 512 Meg DDR RAM.

I run the -use11 option, 800x600 with everything low graphics, but particles low, all sound options low and the timedemo gives me 27 fps average.

I even play multiplayer with a 56K modem and still manage to have some fun.

The only advice I have about the 5200 is did you get the 128-bit memory bus version? ASUS has a few versions and the one with "MAGIC" in the title is the 64-bit version. The next model up on the 5200 is the TD (comes with both an analog and digital out signal) and uses 128-bit memory. Most video card manufacturers aren't very forthcoming about the 64/128-bit memory bus so it's hard to tell.

Good luck.

  • 06.21.2004 11:26 AM PDT
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Posted by: StarBucks330ia
Thank You! Didn't understand why ATI was worth the extra money. Not withstanding buying the "utimate supreme" $500 256MB ATI Radeon card, there SHOULD be other less expensive gaming cards that do the job. My faith is restored.


Well a $500 265MB ATI Radeon card which is the X800 is for people who really demand a video card that can play their games at 1600x1200 with an average of 80fps or something. I have a 9800 pro which I bought for less then two hundred dollars and it is very fast and pretty game. That may give you something to think about.

  • 06.21.2004 1:47 PM PDT
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uh... i hate to say it, but i have the same, somewhat crappy viedo card. halo runs fine on my computer though. have you tried updating your drivers?

  • 06.24.2004 9:14 AM PDT
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man, when will people learn that the 5200 is garbage (no offence, its a cheap card) just like my radeon 9200se, but at least Ive always been able to run Halo.

  • 06.24.2004 8:22 PM PDT