I just installed a copy of Counter-strike: Source [CSS], thanks to the magic of BT.

I was excited to play well in CS that runs with the very chun HL2 engine [though HL2 itself died on me, but that's another story], seeing as how it performed on a friend’s machine. It seems that Sarah is capable of running HL2 pretty well, with no lag or FPS [frames-per-second, also called framerate] drop even in combat.

Sarah is basically on a 1.7GHz Pentium 4[hey, it's the best there was during my post-SPM days], 128MB GF4Ti 4200 with 768MB of system RAM. She even plays UT2004 on medium settings VERY well. However, the case is different for CSS.

Even at 640×480 and lowest graphic settings, Sarah screwed up like it did with Doom 3. Walking around was perfectly fine, but in combat, the FPS drops like to 5 or 10. I can’t even aim properly, and the crosshair doesn’t stabilize because I kept moving instead staying still [which is the ultimate shit when you try to aim at low FPS].

Since I had about 9 bots running, I set it run on Abovenormal priority. However, I still go through those crazy FPS drops!! I’ve been planning Sarah’s upgrade [mobo and processor] for a while, but financial hurdles are forcing me to delay it. So, if you know anythng that can help me overcome this pitiful fate of mine, do let me know!