serious FPS problem in hl2

I have an ati radeon x800xl pci-e with a 3.0 ghz intel p4 processor, and 1024 mb of ram. I run the settings on max 800-600 res, and I'm gettin 100 tops, and thats when looking at a wall, but when fire fights it sometimes even freezes, the weird thing is even when I change the settings to lowest it still jumps between 30 and 60, sometimes down to 10 or 15, if I shoot a grenade it freezes.

 

I already defraqed ran a reg cleaner.... doom 3 runs fine a little lag here an there, but not all that often, but half-life 2 basically freezes, I heard it should run smooth as silk on my computer?

 

maybe you overlooked installing your newest mobo drivers (not from cd) and bios.

 

You should download the NEWEST drivers from all the WEBSITES of the manufacturers of your PC components. ALSO, I had a similar problem in CS, I OC'd my card and it froze in firefights but worked fine when no one was on screen.

 

have the latest catalyst for my radeon, bios for my mobo, and other drivers are up to date, any other drivers specifically needed...

p.s. I'm reading that article now thanks