Help with graphics card

[LucianFlame]

Hello..i have a Q6600 CPU and a radeon 4770 graphic card, i like to combat in second life and this setup just isn't enough. I have my graphics on lowest and i get about 25-30 fps. I was wondering if i would get better FPS if i upgraded my graphic card, i want to get around 60, but i don't know if its possible with the CPU i have.

 

Does anyone else use a Q6600 processor? I heard second life runs alot off a CPU and not so much off a GPU, but if anyone else here has a Q6600 and is able to get good frame rates per second, please let me know. I need to know where to buy a new graphics card, or trash this pc and buy a new one completely.

[Sephy McCaw]

Im pretty sure 25-30fps is way good for any sort of combat sim, the more avatars their are the more your fps will drop because it has to render each one, i dont think getting a better card would help in this instance.

 

[Peggy Paperdoll]

There are so many different things that effect your FPS besides your graphics card (though it is a major device for any graphics oriented program......especially 3D environments).  You have system RAM and it's speed.  The CPU plays a role, but not as much as you might think (a fairly fast single core CPU will give just about the same performance as a very fast quad core).  The video RAM for your card and it's speed.  The operating system and it's setup play a bigger role than most people think (if you have all the bells and whistles enabled then you are really taking performance way down for SL).  How many background programs you have running.  How updated is your system.  And your Internet connection speed and quality (extremely important). 

 

SL is very different than any other online "game".  Other than the viewer (which is nothing more than a specialized browser) and caches nothing you see in SL is stored on your computer.  Everything has to be requested by your viewer then delivered to your viewer from remote servers.  Not only that but you have to share that data with every other avatar in your viewing distance.  It's an avalanche of data constantly being requested and recieved by your computer.  The very nature of SL is never going to be as fast as locally (your hard drive) stored data.  I don't think anyone can build a single computer that will house all the information required for real time 3D graphics that SL delivers.......and still be updated every single time someone creates or uploads something to SL.

 

All that effects your FPS.  And the more people in your view distance, the more objects and textures in your view distance is more data that must be requested and recieved by your viewer............that will slow your FPS down (your graphics card can't render something that it is waiting for).  25 to 30 FPS is probably as good as you can expect in SL.  You might be able to get higher but not in a populated area with objects and textures (I can get up to 90 FPS on my sky platform at 4000 meters...........but about 25 to 30 at a live music event).  A higher end video card may give you a little more FPS at a little higher setting in preferences...........but not 60.  The platform is not designed for games even though you can play games so it won't be like WoW or other online games.