What is good graphics card to use on SL now days ?

[Kei Niosaki]

I know this has been asked a ton of times . I myself usualy never have to ask this, the answer is always go with Nvida.

But reading through the Jira an reveiws an stuff the newer Nvidia cards 400 a 500 series seem to be loaded with problems.

my computer now is getting old an its time for a new one and im  stuck as to what to get. most sites only give the option for a nvidia  400 or 500 series card in new built computer. or the AMD 5000 or 6000 series . Are the new AMD having the same issues as the new Nvidias ? is AMD the direction to go now days ?  im so confused with all the issues goin on SL right now as to what to invest my money into .

[Parhelion Palou]

The problem with the newer NVidia cards is actually due to Linden Lab needing to update the viewer code to get rid of OpenGL calls that shouldn't be used anymore. A workaround is to use an older NVidia driver with the 400/500 series cards until LL fixes the code. Check https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/CTS-657?page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels%3Acomment-tabpanel&focusedCommentId=279187. It says which driver to use. An explanation of the actual problem is in a comment near the bottom of the page.

I prefer NVidia cards myself, but any of the new AMD or NVidia cards should run SL fine, especially the cards starting around $200 (U.S.) and up.

 

[Peggy Paperdoll]

The only problems I've heard about a few cards having issues with OpenGL are driver related.........that's for both ATI and nVidia.  The chipset series (like that 400 and 500 for nVidia and 5000 and 6000 for ATI) are the most recent chipsets designed and distributed by the manufacturers.............the contain all the latest advances for graphics.  None of that advancement can be used unless it has a driver (software) to make it happen.  I wouldn't hestitate one minute for any card I wanted because the card's driver may have problems.  The problem will be corrected and while I wait I can just drop back a driver or two revision and be happy and a lark.

 

Do a little research though.  The series does not tell you how well any card will perform.  A GTS 250 nVidia card will out perform a GT 520.

[Chic Aeon]

Here is a very good article that should shed some light on things for you:

http://www.kirstensviewer.com/Blog/177/__Kirstens_GPU_Awards_2011_!__.html

 BEWARE that Linden Labs is not fond of ATI cards. I have a HD6900 and it renders things gorgeously with only one issue -- shadows are BAD. You have a choice of either shadows with an antialiased looking edge or smooth edges with no shadows . So if you plan on running shadows full time, you will probably want to opt for a NVIDIA card.   Shadows ARE a graphics card issue. Kirsten explained it to me but it was above my tech level *wink*. 

It should be noted that I am a photographer and filmer and picky about how things look. You might not mind looking at jagged edges , but for me I just gave up on the shadows.

 

BTW if you are buying a new card for an old computer be SURE your power supply will handle the upgrade. You might know that, but lots of folks don't.

 

 

[Baloo Uriza]

Is it from the last 15 months?  Does it have good Linux support?  If yes, it'll probably be a strong choice for SL, regardless of whether or not you use Linux.

[Lynna Yorcliffe]

I have a NVIDIA card and I too had issues however I found out that the card was not my problem. ON my windows 7 64 bit dual core processor system, I was having numerous system lockups while logged inworld regardless of the viewer. I found out though by checking my services that were running on my computer that windows media sharing was using over 2 million in memory and was causing my processor to overload when it maxed out thus freezing the system and requiring a manual reboot of the whole PC by shutting off at the CPU box.

I found windows media sharing was streaming any media I saw or listened to to the HOME GROUP NETWORK - due to stream media being checked. Once I disabled Windows media sharing, disabled stream media on the home group network and disabled auto detecte home group networks I no long am having any issues. The computer works better than it ever has - and Im very happy with my graphics card now. My card is a NVidia GeForce with 1 gig card ram. Good luck.

 

EDIT TO ADD I have a NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GT with 1 gig card ram PCI express  and paid just under $70.00 on Amazon.com

[Izabela Navarathna]

The beter cards u should choose amd or nivida GTX, gtx from idnk 660? or newer, u should watch new procesor i7 or i6,5.

U can choose with two cards, hd 4000 and gtx or gt660 there are good too and in good price.