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Love Hastings
#66666
Join date: 21 Aug 2007
Posts: 4,094
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01-16-2008 14:06
How much graphics card is "enough" for SL? OpenGL isn't the crazy graphics processing power whore that Direct X is, so at what point do you hit diminishing returns with performance/cost?
I'm thinking about an upgrade for SL, you see. But I want to cheap about it.
Thanks!
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Ceera Murakami
Texture Artist / Builder
Join date: 9 Sep 2005
Posts: 7,750
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01-16-2008 14:10
No such thing as "enough".
More VRAM = more texture memory and faster rezzing of what is around you.
Faster Graphics Processing unit and/or wider bandwidth on graphics processing = less lag, faster FPS experienced.
For most purposes, 20 FPS will feel pretty good for most people. But a card that gets 20 FPS in an average situarion will dog down to 5 FPS or worse in a big crowd, while a better card that gets 60+ FPS will barely notice the crowd is there.
I've only seen one card I would consider "Too much" It's an NVIDIA card offered with the new Mac Pro. 1.5 GIG of VRAM, and they want an additional $2,800 or so US Dollars to add it to the Mac Pro!
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Sorry, LL won't let me tell you where I sell my textures and where I offer my services as a sim builder. Ask me in-world.
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Yosef Okelly
Mostly Harmless
Join date: 26 Aug 2007
Posts: 2,692
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01-16-2008 14:24
I have one machine with dual 8600 GX. It sits at 72 FPS roughly 80% of the time. That is because it is waiting on the refresh rate of the moniter before rendering the next frame. I guess you could call that "too much" because it is not the slowest part of the process.
Having said that, let me also state that if you put those cards in a 4 year old computer, you will not see any better performance over, say, a 7600GS card. In that case you can say the 7600GS is too much because yet again it is not the slowest point in the process. If you do not have the bus speed and the wattage to keep the graphic card fed, it's just a waste of money to get it.
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