My son just bought Counter Strike Source (of course he couldn't wait to get it and has been hounding me all weekend). But now, Alas, it doesn't work. We have a 2.4 G Hz Pentium with 512k RAM. I think the video card may be too slow.

So what is the economical solution to a new video card. I know nothing of Direct X 7 or better (that appears to be what the web site recommends). I've seen some video cards on Newegg.com for over $400 and that is too rich for me.

ETA: Info on the processor from Dell Dimension 3000:

PROCESSOR, 80546, 2.8, 1M, PENTIUM 4 PRESCOTT DT, 533, D0

Opened the box. There is no AGP slot, just room for 3 PCI's


Thanks in advance.

www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=326036

BFG 7600, only if you have PCI express though.  badass card and has a great warranty

and jumping up to 1 gig of ram will help too.

I'm running a ATI Radeon X800 256MB runs fine

Just put this in mine:

www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814150122

and it absolutely rocks on F.E.A.R. and Quake4.

Get more ram.

IF you can find an old ATI 9600XT or 9800PRO.

It will run CSS preatty good.


heres a X550 its PCI-E $52

www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102626

or a 9550 i AGP for $54

www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102484

Thes should run Source fine, not great but will do it nicely.

Im a bit of  a ATI fanboy but when it comes to the Source engine ATI wins hands down agains any comparible Nvidea card

Need more specifics on the computer: Brand, Model Number, do you know if is has an AGP or PCI slot?

1) You are running an AGP based computer. This severely limits your video card choices... Most 'New' video boards are made for PCI-Express

2) You BOUGHT Counter Strike Source? I assume you don't have 'Half Life 2', because if you do you paid for the same game twice!

2) HalfLife 2 works just fine with a 128MB (or even 64MB) ATI or NVidia board - I ran it on my GeForce4 based PC and my ATI 9600 based laptop.

4) Other, newer games (HL2/CSS is about 2 years old) will run the above system into the ground, regardless of video card...

PCs have finally reached the point where clock speed (Ghz) is irrelevant WRT system speed. AMD and Intel have both by-and-large switched to a 'Model Number' system to denote their CPUs, because each 'revision' of the Pentium4 or Athlon64 has barely increased it's clock speed, but significantly increased it's performance. In short, 2 'Pentium 4' CPUs may both run at 3ghz, but the second one may be significantly faster...

It has gotten to the point where in order to increase performance, both companies are selling multiple-CPU chips (aka 'Dual Core'), sometimes running at slower clock rates than their single-CPU counterparts (but actually running the system faster)...

So, it may not seem that big of a jump to 3ghz+, but the current crop of CPUs are well ahead (Logically, Intel should be on 'Pentium 10' by now, but neither Intel nor AMD has actually changed the names of their CPUs to indicate the level of development that has occurred)....

I run it on an ATI Radeon 9600XT 128mb. Anything better than that should work ok. Also I have 1.25GB of RAM and a 1.73 GHz AMD Athlon XP 2100+

What kind of computer do you have?
Does it even have a slot for a video card, as opposed to intregrated video?

Get a Radeon 9800 Pro.  They're cheap now and well run Counter Strike just fine.  If your playing CS on the half-life 2 engine then you may want a faster card, but the 9800 will run it if you dum down the graphics.

Half Life 2 was bundled with my ATI Radeon 9600XT. It's an older card but it will run CS:S with no problems given your CPU. Just don't max out the graphic settings.




On for the geeks on the board. I'm now running a Geforce 6800GT  with a  Athlon 64 3500 and 2GB of ram on a ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe mobo. It's a year old build but it still gets the job done.

Quoted: Need more specifics on the computer: Brand, Model Number, do you know if is has an AGP or PCI slot?

1 year old Dell Dimension 3000, Windows XP Professional, unsure about video slot that is available.

Quoted: Quoted: Need more specifics on the computer: Brand, Model Number, do you know if is has an AGP or PCI slot? 1 year old Dell Dimension 3000, Windows XP Professional, unsure about video slot that is available.

Sorry, you're screwed unless you can find a Radeon 9600XT in PCI.
you do not have a pci-e slot nor an AGP slot.

I am not a 100% sure this is going to work for you, but the customer reviews say it can handle HL2

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814131411

you say there is no agp slot???  why dont you take a picture of the inside of your computer and post it, because i dont believe it.

cs:source runs fine on my nvidia 6600gt

Quoted: you say there is no agp slot???  why dont you take a picture of the inside of your computer and post it, because i dont believe it. cs:source runs fine on my nvidia 6600gt

trust me no Pic is needed. these low-end dells have no provisions for better video.
if he had a 4XXX series or better, it would have an AGP slot.
I've bought and sold dozens of dells over the last few years

ATTN: Counter strike players. I used to play it a lot (like 8 hours a day! ) I assume This "source" is for the Half life 2 game? I dont have either. Stop playing CS like 3 years ago. But i need alittle info. I got turned off CS because of all the scumbag cheaters. Weather in Clan games or in public servers it was fucking rotten. The only time i could kick ass was when a new anti-cheat would comeout then i would get a 4 to1 ratio, and people would accuse ME of cheating! lol. But those patches would only last like a week before some cocksucker would bypass it with some little proggie. I got disgusted so i stopped wasting my time, no point in just being someone elses paper target. Well what i did was i got into games where cheating is almost nonexsistant because the developers actually bust their butts keeping shitheads from hacking the code and essentially upgrading eachtime a anti-cheat is installed. But i did like that game a lot. So basically my question is, how is the cheating situation? IS it rampant or have they finally realised the gameplay value of keeping the assholes in line? I dont want to spent 60$ just to be some 15 YO shitheads buttmonkey. Hey kid if you wanna boost your non-exsistant self-esteem take drugs or something!! Anyway, worth it or not?

This might be an option.

Why did you buy a Dell w/ no decent card slots.  I bought a Gateway for $350 out the door on clearance.  Dropped in a PCI-e X800XL, and 1 GB Crucial RAM, and this machine smokes.  I can max out the settings on anything and no lag.  Id just forget about CSS, until you get a real machine.  Better to start from scratch.