i was thinking about going ahead and buying HL2 since it will come wiht most everyhting ive been wanting, im going to have to buy a new vid card with tax return money though because right now my computer averages like 20 fps on regular half life, i dont know much about video cards and was wondering what i should consider when purchasing one, links would be greatly appreciated, i wanna run HL2 smooth so am looking to get around 50 fps, i hear 70 or so is usually max? thanks in advance

How much are you wanting to spend? That's probably the limiting factor here. If you've got $400+ to spare, I'd get either a 6800 GT and overclock to Ultra speeds or X800 Pro VIVO and flash to X800XT-PE. My GT (which is overclocked almost to Ultra Extreme stock speeds) will get 105 FPS in the CS:S stress test with 4xAA and 8xAF. If you've got around $200 to spend, a 9800 pro will do nicely, or a 6800 regular would be better for around $50 more. Just depends on how much you want to spend.

well it really dpeends on how much my tax return gives me id say in the range of 80-100, i dont wanna have to upgrade again for a LONG time

Then spend $100 more than your tax return and get a 9800 pro.

nono, my tax return is where the initial money is comming from, if it gives me enough to get one of those i may consider it, but i was also hopeing to buy a processor with that money and thatll be aorund 100$ for the one im looking for

A GeForce FX 5750 is probably the LEAST i'd recommend for HL2. You can pick those up fairly cheap, but if you're looking to run max quality, you'll be disappointed. Keep your resolutions reasonable and you should get about 50 fps out of it.

If you want to save even more money and you're feeling adventurous, get a 9800SE for $130, buy the $15 VGA Silencer (replaces old fan/heatsink and takes up the entire slot below your video card to blow hot air out of the back) and slap that sucker on. You can then overclock it to 9800 Pro speed without worries. That's what I'm probably going to do sometime.

I find that my 9600 Xt runs all the max visual settings. but my processor doesnt let it run smoothly.

so something like this should do nicely?

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1020529&CatId=880

or shoudl i spend the extra and get this one?

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=588568&CatId=935

if your computer runs half life 1 at 20 frames per second you might need more than just a new video card

well ive got a 1.7 and 768mb ram right now, i plan on putting somethign around a 2.8 on this new mothboard i got, does anything matter besides ram the vid card and processor speed?

I have a 9600 Pro and I can run Half-Life very smoothly for the most part with most of the visual settings around the "medium" level.

You mean Half Life 2 right?

Yes, sorry.

Yeah, I didn't want to sound like douche (I'm afraid I did, sorry), but if you had that card and ran Half Life like that, your computer would need serious help.