Second Life Forums Archive - Video Cards Check

Kat Sunset

Registered User

Join date: 8 Apr 2005

Posts: 20

05-31-2006 00:09

Hey there

I know that SL has been lagging for many friends I know. I have been getting artifacts during , before and after rezzing. In addition I have been getting lag that makes my character move like a spastic 2 year old. Why? More than likely I just dont have the video card to do it (despite that I can run other 3d games, work on my 3D animation, render, etc on it just fine).

My vid card: Intel 82845G Graphics Controller

Anyone have one like this?

-Kat
(who will be off of SL until things are more friendly for substandard cards like hers)

Note: I have a laptop so the easy solution of getting a better video card is complexed by the fact that i have a laptop

Tsukasa Karuna

Master of all things desu

Join date: 30 Jun 2004

Posts: 370

05-31-2006 00:36

Intel integrated cards are notorious for not working right with SL :/

In fact, integrated video in general is notorious for plain ordinary SUCKAGE.

You almost *need* a separate accelerator to get the most out of your machine, let alone a beast like SL. Hunt around ebay and the like, older ATI and GeForce cards are pretty easy to come by, and are a huge step up from integrated sh*t.

_____________________

".. who as of 5 seconds ago is no longer the deliverator.."

Nasiba Nadir

Registered User

Join date: 9 May 2006

Posts: 26

05-31-2006 00:42

You can work in 3d with integrated graphics??

What's the tag for the stunned smiley, lol?

It must take you an hour to render a shiney ball!

Really, you can get a decent card for $50 on ebay and you will appreciate the difference, believe me.

Tod69 Talamasca

The Human Tripod ;)

Join date: 20 Sep 2005

Posts: 4,107

05-31-2006 01:12

Or, if you're not trusting of eBay, try Newegg

OH! One other thing, make sure you have an AGP slot.

Erbo Evans

Electric Resi

Join date: 22 May 2006

Posts: 49

05-31-2006 01:18

From: Tod69 Talamasca

Or, if you're not trusting of eBay, try Newegg

OH! One other thing, make sure you have an AGP slot.

Newegg, definitely. I bought my most recent video card there as part of a newly-built system; I spent $128 on a Radeon X1600 Pro AGP with 512Mb RAM. I thought that was more card than I'd ever need. Then I installed SL.

Tod69 Talamasca

The Human Tripod ;)

Join date: 20 Sep 2005

Posts: 4,107

05-31-2006 01:31

Heh, I just ordered a new hard drive from them. My main one just died.

Luckily the system shut itself down so I can hopefully recover my stuff. Will pick up Norton's Ghost on the weekend too, so I can just make an disk image & not have to go thru the BS of reinstalling everything, which takes me about a week.

The new drive should be here in 2-3 days. 160 Gig's for $78. Not bad!

Starax Statosky

Unregistered User

Join date: 23 Dec 2003

Posts: 1,099

05-31-2006 01:43

Get a Nvidia card, Kat.

I'm not sure, but I think ATI cards are still poor performers for SL, compared to Nvidia.

Wendel Gascoigne

Registered User

Join date: 19 May 2005

Posts: 226

05-31-2006 02:31

From: Starax Statosky

Get a Nvidia card, Kat.

I'm not sure, but I think ATI cards are still poor performers for SL, compared to Nvidia.

Then you'd be wrong. That was once the case but my Ati X800Xt runs SL very nicely even while not being a high end card by today's standards. And while some NVidia users are complaining of crashes or decreased performance in 1.10, it runs better, if anything, for me. And not a single crash or disconnect so far!

That being said, NVidia has a great range of cards to choose from. So I'm just pointing out that you shouldn't discard ATi offhand, but should include it in your price/feautre comparisons.

I agree with the above posters that about anything will be much much better than an integrated graphics chipset though.

Wendel

Quintin Darkes

Registered User

Join date: 21 May 2006

Posts: 6

05-31-2006 06:03

From: Wendel Gascoigne

Then you'd be wrong. That was once the case but my Ati X800Xt runs SL very nicely even while not being a high end card by today's standards. And while some NVidia users are complaining of crashes or decreased performance in 1.10, it runs better, if anything, for me. And not a single crash or disconnect so far!

That being said, NVidia has a great range of cards to choose from. So I'm just pointing out that you shouldn't discard ATi offhand, but should include it in your price/feautre comparisons.

I agree with the above posters that about anything will be much much better than an integrated graphics chipset though.

Wendel

My Geforce 4 MX440 prawns you

Cottonteil Muromachi

Abominable

Join date: 2 Mar 2005

Posts: 1,071

05-31-2006 06:41

From: Kat Sunset

despite that I can run other 3d games, work on my 3D animation, render, etc on it just fine).

My vid card: Intel 82845G Graphics Controller

Rendering speed doesn't involve the graphics card.

Wendel Gascoigne

Registered User

Join date: 19 May 2005

Posts: 226

05-31-2006 06:41

From: Quintin Darkes

My Geforce 4 MX440 prawns you

LOL! I can't compete with that.

Wendel

Dismay Wilde

Bleed Designs Owner

Join date: 12 Aug 2004

Posts: 1,771

05-31-2006 06:41

mmm Nvidia <3

_____________________

FlipperPA Peregrine

Magically Delicious!

Join date: 14 Nov 2003

Posts: 3,703

05-31-2006 07:19

Here's a copy of an email I sent out to the SL Educator's mailing list yesterday. Please, no "how dare you suggest I ever need to upgrade my technology" posts...this is merely meant to help. Also, TigerDirect and NewEgg both have great deals; often with a rebate you can get an SL-supported card for about $15, and one that will perform quite nicely for about $50. I'm also including some tips on getting the most out of the latest SL version that I've learning over the past few days in Live Help.

I've heard a lot of frustration about the new version in Live Help the past few days, and also have some other advice that may help users of various cards.

First and foremost, general advice: update your drivers as best you can!

ATI users: ATI (as usual) has presented the lion's share of the issues we've been dealing with in Live Help. In traditional ATI fashion, their drivers seem to be the problem. If you're on an ATI card and experiencing problems, try going to PREFERENCES, GRAPHICS DETAIL, and UN-check Avatar Vertex Program. You may have to update your ATI drivers before being able to do this.

nVidia users: 95% of nVidia cards use the same nVidia Forceware drivers.
Laptop manufacturers are notoriously bad at updating their drivers once their product is release, but it is typically safe, if you have an nVidia chipset, to upgrade to the latest Forceware drivers you can download from www.nVidia.com - and if they don't work, you can always do a rollback. On my laptop, I've had great luck with the 84.22 version drivers, even though my manufacturer's last release is the 67.X version of the drivers.

If you're on ATI or nVidia and neither of these solutions help improve things, try visiting www.OmegaDrivers.net - these third party drivers are incredibly well written and stable.

Worst case scenario: upgrading your card. Its cheaper than you think:

nVidia GeForce 6200, 256 meg, AGP: $45.99 after rebate:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1
776106&Sku=P450-8568

nVidia GeForce 6600, 256 meg, PCIexpress: $79.99:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2
6359&Sku=L456-1006

nVidia GeForce 5200, 128 meg, AGP: $34.99:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6
74963&Sku=P450-8602

nVidia GeForce MX 4000, 64 MB, AGP: $14.99 after rebate:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1
010677&Sku=E145-4002

You can view all of Tiger Direct's nVidia options here:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_slc.asp?CatId=1087

I can not stress enough to understand the difference between PCI-Express (the best), AGP (very good), and PCI (older) video card types before you purchase! You must know which your computer's motherboard supports before you purchase a card or you'll be sorely disappointed! For example, Dell is quite cheap; they often don't include PCI-Express or AGP slots on their mother boards to save the 20 cents it would cost to put one in place. Check your computer manual or ask a geeky friend before you purchase.

I hope this brain dump helps!

Regards,

-Flip

_____________________

Peregrine Salon: www.PeregrineSalon.com - my consulting company
Second Blogger: www.SecondBlogger.com - free, fully integrated Second Life blogging for all avatars!

Kat Sunset

Registered User

Join date: 8 Apr 2005

Posts: 20

05-31-2006 08:13

From: Tsukasa Karuna

Intel integrated cards are notorious for not working right with SL :/

In fact, integrated video in general is notorious for plain ordinary SUCKAGE.

You almost *need* a separate accelerator to get the most out of your machine, let alone a beast like SL. Hunt around ebay and the like, older ATI and GeForce cards are pretty easy to come by, and are a huge step up from integrated sh*t.

Yeah. I have a laptop so changing a vid card out isnt as easy as you would like it to be. I would say that I could jsut get a new computer but...uh..I dont have that kind of money.

Loethe Rockwell

Transylvanian Vampyre

Join date: 20 Oct 2004

Posts: 20

NVidia Vs ATI

05-31-2006 08:16

In all the graphics cards writeups and tests I read in the magazines when they pitch an NVidia card Vs it's comparative ATI card, the NVidia card always performs better in OpenGL games. The ATI card sometimes performs better in other games, but since we're talking about SL, and correct me if I'm wrong but SL is a OpenGL game isn't it?.

I get my NVidia drivers from:

http://downloads.guru3d.com/

I always try the modified ones, some geek takes the NVidia supplied drivers and messes about with the code to get a few more FPS out of it. Find them here:

http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?id=2

Good Luck

Flavian Molinari

Broadly Offensive Content

Join date: 1 Aug 2004

Posts: 662

05-31-2006 08:25

^^^^ What Flipper said. ^^^^

I have a nividia 6800gs 256k agp, not top of the line but not crap either.

It seems to work well with SL. I had a nividia 5200, 256k agp prior, It worked fine also.

I have a gig of ram and that was the best gaming upgrade I've made for the money.

I wish there was a way too log on to SL in some kind of low bandwidth mode.

Video Cards Check
Kat Sunset Registered User Join date: 8 Apr 2005 Posts: 20	05-31-2006 00:09 Hey there I know that SL has been lagging for many friends I know. I have been getting artifacts during , before and after rezzing. In addition I have been getting lag that makes my character move like a spastic 2 year old. Why? More than likely I just dont have the video card to do it (despite that I can run other 3d games, work on my 3D animation, render, etc on it just fine). My vid card: Intel 82845G Graphics Controller Anyone have one like this? -Kat (who will be off of SL until things are more friendly for substandard cards like hers) Note: I have a laptop so the easy solution of getting a better video card is complexed by the fact that i have a laptop
Tsukasa Karuna Master of all things desu Join date: 30 Jun 2004 Posts: 370	05-31-2006 00:36 Intel integrated cards are notorious for not working right with SL :/ In fact, integrated video in general is notorious for plain ordinary SUCKAGE. You almost need a separate accelerator to get the most out of your machine, let alone a beast like SL. Hunt around ebay and the like, older ATI and GeForce cards are pretty easy to come by, and are a huge step up from integrated sh*t. _____________________ ".. who as of 5 seconds ago is no longer the deliverator.."
Nasiba Nadir Registered User Join date: 9 May 2006 Posts: 26	05-31-2006 00:42 You can work in 3d with integrated graphics?? What's the tag for the stunned smiley, lol? It must take you an hour to render a shiney ball! Really, you can get a decent card for $50 on ebay and you will appreciate the difference, believe me.
Tod69 Talamasca The Human Tripod ;) Join date: 20 Sep 2005 Posts: 4,107	05-31-2006 01:12 Or, if you're not trusting of eBay, try Newegg OH! One other thing, make sure you have an AGP slot.
Erbo Evans Electric Resi Join date: 22 May 2006 Posts: 49	05-31-2006 01:18 From: Tod69 Talamasca Or, if you're not trusting of eBay, try Newegg OH! One other thing, make sure you have an AGP slot. Newegg, definitely. I bought my most recent video card there as part of a newly-built system; I spent $128 on a Radeon X1600 Pro AGP with 512Mb RAM. I thought that was more card than I'd ever need. Then I installed SL.
Tod69 Talamasca The Human Tripod ;) Join date: 20 Sep 2005 Posts: 4,107	05-31-2006 01:31 Heh, I just ordered a new hard drive from them. My main one just died. Luckily the system shut itself down so I can hopefully recover my stuff. Will pick up Norton's Ghost on the weekend too, so I can just make an disk image & not have to go thru the BS of reinstalling everything, which takes me about a week. The new drive should be here in 2-3 days. 160 Gig's for $78. Not bad!
Starax Statosky Unregistered User Join date: 23 Dec 2003 Posts: 1,099	05-31-2006 01:43 Get a Nvidia card, Kat. I'm not sure, but I think ATI cards are still poor performers for SL, compared to Nvidia.
Wendel Gascoigne Registered User Join date: 19 May 2005 Posts: 226	05-31-2006 02:31 From: Starax Statosky Get a Nvidia card, Kat. I'm not sure, but I think ATI cards are still poor performers for SL, compared to Nvidia. Then you'd be wrong. That was once the case but my Ati X800Xt runs SL very nicely even while not being a high end card by today's standards. And while some NVidia users are complaining of crashes or decreased performance in 1.10, it runs better, if anything, for me. And not a single crash or disconnect so far! That being said, NVidia has a great range of cards to choose from. So I'm just pointing out that you shouldn't discard ATi offhand, but should include it in your price/feautre comparisons. I agree with the above posters that about anything will be much much better than an integrated graphics chipset though. Wendel
Quintin Darkes Registered User Join date: 21 May 2006 Posts: 6	05-31-2006 06:03 From: Wendel Gascoigne Then you'd be wrong. That was once the case but my Ati X800Xt runs SL very nicely even while not being a high end card by today's standards. And while some NVidia users are complaining of crashes or decreased performance in 1.10, it runs better, if anything, for me. And not a single crash or disconnect so far! That being said, NVidia has a great range of cards to choose from. So I'm just pointing out that you shouldn't discard ATi offhand, but should include it in your price/feautre comparisons. I agree with the above posters that about anything will be much much better than an integrated graphics chipset though. Wendel My Geforce 4 MX440 prawns you
Cottonteil Muromachi Abominable Join date: 2 Mar 2005 Posts: 1,071	05-31-2006 06:41 From: Kat Sunset despite that I can run other 3d games, work on my 3D animation, render, etc on it just fine). My vid card: Intel 82845G Graphics Controller Rendering speed doesn't involve the graphics card.
Wendel Gascoigne Registered User Join date: 19 May 2005 Posts: 226	05-31-2006 06:41 From: Quintin Darkes My Geforce 4 MX440 prawns you LOL! I can't compete with that. Wendel
Dismay Wilde Bleed Designs Owner Join date: 12 Aug 2004 Posts: 1,771	05-31-2006 06:41 mmm Nvidia <3 _____________________
FlipperPA Peregrine Magically Delicious! Join date: 14 Nov 2003 Posts: 3,703	05-31-2006 07:19 Here's a copy of an email I sent out to the SL Educator's mailing list yesterday. Please, no "how dare you suggest I ever need to upgrade my technology" posts...this is merely meant to help. Also, TigerDirect and NewEgg both have great deals; often with a rebate you can get an SL-supported card for about $15, and one that will perform quite nicely for about $50. I'm also including some tips on getting the most out of the latest SL version that I've learning over the past few days in Live Help. I've heard a lot of frustration about the new version in Live Help the past few days, and also have some other advice that may help users of various cards. First and foremost, general advice: update your drivers as best you can! ATI users: ATI (as usual) has presented the lion's share of the issues we've been dealing with in Live Help. In traditional ATI fashion, their drivers seem to be the problem. If you're on an ATI card and experiencing problems, try going to PREFERENCES, GRAPHICS DETAIL, and UN-check Avatar Vertex Program. You may have to update your ATI drivers before being able to do this. nVidia users: 95% of nVidia cards use the same nVidia Forceware drivers. Laptop manufacturers are notoriously bad at updating their drivers once their product is release, but it is typically safe, if you have an nVidia chipset, to upgrade to the latest Forceware drivers you can download from www.nVidia.com - and if they don't work, you can always do a rollback. On my laptop, I've had great luck with the 84.22 version drivers, even though my manufacturer's last release is the 67.X version of the drivers. If you're on ATI or nVidia and neither of these solutions help improve things, try visiting www.OmegaDrivers.net - these third party drivers are incredibly well written and stable. Worst case scenario: upgrading your card. Its cheaper than you think: nVidia GeForce 6200, 256 meg, AGP: $45.99 after rebate: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1 776106&Sku=P450-8568 nVidia GeForce 6600, 256 meg, PCIexpress: $79.99: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2 6359&Sku=L456-1006 nVidia GeForce 5200, 128 meg, AGP: $34.99: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6 74963&Sku=P450-8602 nVidia GeForce MX 4000, 64 MB, AGP: $14.99 after rebate: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1 010677&Sku=E145-4002 You can view all of Tiger Direct's nVidia options here: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_slc.asp?CatId=1087 I can not stress enough to understand the difference between PCI-Express (the best), AGP (very good), and PCI (older) video card types before you purchase! You must know which your computer's motherboard supports before you purchase a card or you'll be sorely disappointed! For example, Dell is quite cheap; they often don't include PCI-Express or AGP slots on their mother boards to save the 20 cents it would cost to put one in place. Check your computer manual or ask a geeky friend before you purchase. I hope this brain dump helps! Regards, -Flip _____________________ Peregrine Salon: www.PeregrineSalon.com - my consulting company Second Blogger: www.SecondBlogger.com - free, fully integrated Second Life blogging for all avatars!
Kat Sunset Registered User Join date: 8 Apr 2005 Posts: 20	05-31-2006 08:13 From: Tsukasa Karuna Intel integrated cards are notorious for not working right with SL :/ In fact, integrated video in general is notorious for plain ordinary SUCKAGE. You almost need a separate accelerator to get the most out of your machine, let alone a beast like SL. Hunt around ebay and the like, older ATI and GeForce cards are pretty easy to come by, and are a huge step up from integrated sh*t. Yeah. I have a laptop so changing a vid card out isnt as easy as you would like it to be. I would say that I could jsut get a new computer but...uh..I dont have that kind of money.
Loethe Rockwell Transylvanian Vampyre Join date: 20 Oct 2004 Posts: 20	NVidia Vs ATI 05-31-2006 08:16 In all the graphics cards writeups and tests I read in the magazines when they pitch an NVidia card Vs it's comparative ATI card, the NVidia card always performs better in OpenGL games. The ATI card sometimes performs better in other games, but since we're talking about SL, and correct me if I'm wrong but SL is a OpenGL game isn't it?. I get my NVidia drivers from: http://downloads.guru3d.com/ I always try the modified ones, some geek takes the NVidia supplied drivers and messes about with the code to get a few more FPS out of it. Find them here: http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?id=2 Good Luck
Flavian Molinari Broadly Offensive Content Join date: 1 Aug 2004 Posts: 662	05-31-2006 08:25 ^^^^ What Flipper said. ^^^^ I have a nividia 6800gs 256k agp, not top of the line but not crap either. It seems to work well with SL. I had a nividia 5200, 256k agp prior, It worked fine also. I have a gig of ram and that was the best gaming upgrade I've made for the money. I wish there was a way too log on to SL in some kind of low bandwidth mode.

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Video Cards Check