Tried the valve recommended fix, it helped a bit, running it in safe mode definately makes it run faster, but it removes shadows, which is a kick in the junk, because they sometimes let you 'wallhack' when you see someone elses shadow coming around a corner.

Totally blanked on HT multiplier, so thats what I'll fiddle with tonight.

ok i'm going to have to open a ticket with valve too... I tried just about everyting, i've been OCING my computer like crazy and got 2.6 GHZ out of my 3500 and I still drop FPS like crazy in HL.

In BF2 all settings on everything runs great but not on this. crap.

Aperently people on the steam forums are having huge issues as well.

I still can't get anything close to reliable running, like I said, safe mode runs better, but looks terrible, and normal mode looks good, but runs terrible.

I'm just more or less giving up on CS:S for now... Oblivion is out in a month anyways.