Acceptable graphics cards

[Rhys Falconer]

My graphics card is an Nvidia GT 525m and I don't seem to be able to run the viewer. I can login but it either won't rez or will do it extremely slowly. Typing and everything else is extremely slow. Is anyone running SL with this card or have suggestions as to how to tweak it?

[Knowl Paine]

You can try to adjust your SL Graphics in Preferences, I would disable shaders if they are currently enabled. Reduce your Draw distance settings.

The link to a review appears to show that you have a fast mid-range card, if this is your card.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-525M.43889.0.html

[Peggy Paperdoll]

Try this driver:

 

http://www.nvidia.com/object/notebook-win7-winvista-64bit-280.26-whql-driver.html

 

Being a notebook you may have to go to the manufacturer of your computer for the driver.  The problem there is that manufacturers are seldom current with the drivers available so you may have to settle for something else.  The 525M card is an entry level 3D graphics card.  It's pretty low in the performance area but should be okay for SL........you won't be able to have your preferences set very high (I would guess mid-range at best).  It will also be a little slower than most people would like............to get good performance in SL you need at least a mid level 3D card.  For nVidia that would be a card with the second number in the model a 5 or greater (for instance a GTS 250.........that's a desktop card but the model numbering is the same).

 

[Dante Tucker]

It's a pretty low end card designed for netbooks and the like, meant for reading email and looking at facebook and not much more.

This is becoming a problem now that more people are getting little mobile devices. Such things are not meant for Second Life. You need a computer with a fast processor and graphics designed for gaming. Laptops and other mobile computers usualy do not have such things.

[LoveAngeL Lyre]

Hello Rhys. My laptop has a similar Nvidia GT520M and i run the program without problems with high quality graphics. On the other side, i have lightings and shadows disabled always. This way my fps is arround 55 when i am in empty regions with few avatars and up to 25 (maybe a little more) when i am in regions full of people.

Maybe your internet connection is the cause for the problem. If you use wireless, prefer direct cable connection if it is possible.

Something else you can do is to clear your cache manually and see if that helps. I think it does.

Suggestions i read now about setting your graphics to lower quality of course help too. Generally about graphics the first time you install SL you get a message about an automatical set up of your graphics depending your system specs. Don't change it, at least don't try to get better performance (quality) because only issues you can get and nothing else.

In addition check out the following link. It is about how you can get the program to run faster.

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Making_Second_Life_run_faster

Good luck.

[Knowl Paine]

Thanks for the update, the link I provided does have a review list of other online games tested with that card. I didn't consider the pc machine type.

 I use a desktop pc. If all the parts could fit in a laptop, the manufacturer would have done that, imo.

 

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Not a computer mechanic  

[Qwalyphi Korpov]

It would be helpful to capture information about your configuration using the viewers

Help > About Second Life

and post it here.   That will capture your graphic card info including driver level, processor type and speed, amount of memory and more. That would either help eliminate other possible causes or show them.