building a new pc

[cragt]

ok so im building a new pc so i can use SL. i was thinking of using a 

Sapphire HD 5450 1GB DDR3 HDMI DVI VGA Out PCI-E Low Profile Graphics Card

will this work, im going to use the HDMI to hook it up to my 37" toshiba regaza tv as a monitor.

will this card be sufficent to run SL

many thanks

[LoveAngeL Lyre]

Hello cragt. Anyone can support confidently if this card will be sufficent to run Second Life when it is not included in recommended system requirements. For more details and before you build your new pc have a look at the following link:

http://secondlife.com/support/system-requirements/?lang=en-US

[Shockwave Yareach]

My experience with ATI cards in SL has been horrible, to say the least.  Please consider getting the Nvidia cards instead; same price, much better performance in OpenGL software than ATI. 

You don't believe me, ask anyone here in Second Life.  ATI's support of OpenGL has been terrible, and they have problems (black triangles) that NO Nvidia card has ever shown.  My GTX460 has not had so much as one graphics glitch when running SL.  I cannot even dream to say that about ATI.

[LoveAngeL Lyre]

Totally agree with Shockwave about Geforce nvidia cards. My computer wears a GT 240 and my laptop a GT 520 M and both run faster than a bullet even i have my graphics quality to Ultra.

[Vincent Nacon]

@Shockwave Yareach:  I beg the differ.  I have been using ATI's much as I used Nvidia's.  Sure, there has been some graphic bugs but that doesn't make any difference than Nvidia.  Both companies release new cards with graphical bugs, get patched later on.

Personally, I wouldn't choose videocard based on how buggy they get, it's a common thing for newer models.

However, Second Life does not support any videocards more than 512mb of RAM, thus all newer cards are forced to throttle in 512mb limit. In this case, you want to look at number of SPUs (Stream Processing Units) and memories clock speed.

I'd recommend at least more than 200 SPUs and memories clock speed of 1,333 MHz (for DDR3) or more. The card you're looking at will work but I've found one that is closer to your budget and my recommendation, bigger bang for the bucks.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102933

I've tried looking for Nvidia's counterparts but they are way overpriced (over $140).  Before buying anything, make sure your motherboard can accept the card.  There's more than one type of PCI-E slots and versions.  This ATI card is PCI Express 2.1 x16.  Your TV is 1366 x 768 (advertised as 720p), thus this card will support it; up to 2560 x 1600, can support a 1080p TV if you upgraded it as well.  You will also get DirectX 11 support, which Second Life will soon require for the new features coming after Mesh update.

I know the card is fanless but I would slap a small fan on the heatsink to prolonging its lifespan. ...and can't hurt to overclock a bit. :smileywink: