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Ok looking at my rig i should have a good FPS in source based games (the older ones HL2, CSS etc etc)

CPU: Intel celeron 2.60Ghz Overclocked to 2.9ghz
Ram: 1GB DDR
GPU: Nividia GeForce 6600 LE 256MB
Anything else you need just ask

But whenever i play i get a FPS of 15 max and ive tried re-installing HL2 to various config files to lowering the dxlevel and nothing ever seems to work so help please

Be sure you have the latest drivers for all of your devices.

Yup have done

As the source engine has updated over time, your system isn't good enough to play these games. I could play CSS some years ago with an older system (9600pro and AMD Sempron) at about 30fps but now it gets 10fps or lower.

Its just the way valve has gone with their updates.

ahh had a feeling it may be that, ohwell thanks

I did about 400$ worth of upgrades, kept the monitor, speakers and peripherals, hard drive, dvd drive, and case. Got some budget parts but its all current for most things to come. I had to get a cheap graphics card for now though but it is still able to play source games on high settings with more or less but average100 FPS.

You don't need a 5000$ computer to play a lot of games, a well spent 400$-600$ can get you quiet a decent PC these days.

Source games tend to run better with ATI video cards. But the 6600LE was bottom of the barrel when it was new. There are some pretty good cards out for under $150 like the Radeon 3850.

as stated above source games do tend to run on ati better ... Why this is considering all valve games are made with nvidia cards is beyond my comprehension perhaps its simple irony. But your celeron has an effect as well. The Pentium and up chips are more suited for games.

If I am not mistaken, HL2 actually had a sticker (or something) that stated it run better with ATI. I think they were made with ATI, not NVidia....

I dont really know but i know that on all of valves stuff from demos to previews even their site supports nvidia maybe i'm wrong but i find it quite odd that a company that developes games with ati would support the enemy so much who knows ha

Source engines are much CPU dependant, and u also need a good amount of RAM and a decent GPU. Dont think that Celeron is cutting it. I current am using a Pentium 4 3.0GHz Stock with a Geforce 8800GT and 2.5GB RAM. Looks good enough but i would be better off using a DualCore/C2D for gaming in Source and plus my P4 is a bottleneck for my videocard. With a DualCore cpu id be getting more out of my card and be runnin games smoother. So i plan on upgrade my to a low C2D soon, would still be twice as better as a P4 and triple your celeron for playin source games. (Steam)