ildiko Evergarden Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator X4500HD is it a good graphic card for secondlife? I really need help here please. I wanna buy something that worth the money and not so high over my budget. I don't wanna get something and it ends up being poor graphics and slow performance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peggy Paperdoll Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 Any intergrated graphics media accelerator is nothing but a basic graphics adapter. It's meant for things like streaming video, playing DVD's, showing business pie charts (bar charts too), web pages, images and other 2D graphics..........light weight stuff. Some of the better GMA's will do okay in games that are designed by professionals which is optimized for performance with 100% of the graphics stored on the local computer (read that as your computer's hard drive)........but I said "okay", not well (medium weight stuff). Second Life is very different. Near 100% of the graphics you see in SL are user created (read that as amateur created) and of that near 100% probably as little as 10% is optimized for performance. And none of that content you see in SL is stored locally.......it all is stored on Linden Lab's servers. What that does is put a big load on the graphics adapter.....no intergrated graphics media accelerator can properly cope with that load. It's beyond the capabilities of the GMA because the adapter is just not designed for what SL needs to run properly. Computers come with GMA's for a reason.......they are cheap and they are basic (they do what they are designed to do and very little else). You're not going to get very good performance with your intergrated graphics..........SL may not even run at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ildiko Evergarden Posted February 7, 2012 Author Share Posted February 7, 2012 Well which ones would you prefer I should get? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peggy Paperdoll Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 A discrete (or dedicated) card. I'm familar with nVidia (not so much with AMD/ATI) so I'll recommend any nVidia card not older than 3 generations (or series) and a second number of 5 or above. That would mean a GT, GTS, or GTX 250 at a minimum (the letters indicate minor differences in performance but are generally unimportant). The higher the second number the higher the performance for the series.........at the moment the highest performaning nVidia card is the GTX 580. The newer the series the more expensive the card and the higher the second number the more expensive the card is in the series......same to a lessor degree on the letters (GTX is "better' than a GTS and a GTS is "better" than a GT). You should be able to get a GTS 250 card for less than $100 USD............a GTX 580 will cost near $500 USD. Those are prices and performance for desktops. Laptop computer hardware is always more expensive and the cards have a third number (such as GTX 555M. That would roughly equate to a GTX 550). The laptop also has to have the capability of having a discrete card......which also adds to the price of the computer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VRprofessor Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 How much performance are you looking for? I put an NVIDIA GT520 in my office computer and that works well enough (on low settings) for anything I might legitimately want to accomplish from work. I put an NVIDIA GTX 550 in my home computer. I run on medium settings with results that are good enough for what I do. But not nearly good enough for those who want high fps at ultra settings. For that you need an even better card. If memory serves GTX 580 is the best you can currently get. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ildiko Evergarden Posted February 7, 2012 Author Share Posted February 7, 2012 Ahh I see. Thank you both so much for helping narrow down what I need to look for and the price range. I really appreciate it alot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer Boyle Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 Several months ago, Lee Quick, the developer of Kirsten's viewer, tested a number of video cards and concluded that the GTX 580 was the best for SL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alicia Sautereau Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 Wait a couple of weeks untill the new nvidia card comes out It could be out of your budget, but as a side effect, the price of the 580 will start to go down slowly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceka Cianci Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 Alicia Sautereau wrote: Wait a couple of weeks untill the new nvidia card comes out It could be out of your budget, but as a side effect, the price of the 580 will start to go down slowly thats what i'm doing..i'm waiting for the GTX 600 series to come out before i start getting my new system built.. i hope they are worth the wait..i'm looking to get the 690 if it's as good as it is rumored..=) but i'm not doing nothing till then..i hope it's not a let down hehehe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ildiko Evergarden Posted February 7, 2012 Author Share Posted February 7, 2012 Yea I was looking on the nVidia site. Some of the ones mention the prices have gone down a little. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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