Would better video card make a diff?

Everything looks ok to me in SL, as far as I know. When I have trouble with things like lag (things taking forever to rez or rubberbanding, etc), generally what I see in the lag meter is the client green, the network either yellow or green, and the server red (badness). My video card is not listed as one of the ones SL recommends. It's a GeForce 7100/NVIDIA nForce 630i built into the MB. Would it benefit me in any way to have a better card? TY

A new video card won't help with rubberbanding, but it will make the stuff you float through look AMAZING.

Really? You think things will look better?

I'm using a 7300 LE, and while it works just fine for all other applications, since the addition of Windlight it has a hard time with SL. Due to slow graphics loading, I quite often have to put my graphics on much lower settings than I would like in SL just to reduce the lag time.

A higher end video card would definitely make a difference in performance. Textures would certainly load faster, and there are some effects that are not available on the nVidia 7000 series cards, for example the shadow rendering.

Unfortunately for me, I can't afford a new video card unless this one dies...

/me contemplates the hammer hanging in the garage

No need for a hammer if you have a macbook pro. Playing SL melted the video card on my laptop and I rarely ever went online.

The video card makes a huge difference.

Last year i had an ATI HD2600 XT, and i had to run SL with lower settings and still dealt with massive texture lag in some places.

Now i have a 9800GT 1GB, and SL flies. I keep everything at Max, including antialias and anisotropic at 16x/16xQ, with my draw at 512.

I don't even notice when i am on mainland now with my draw maxxed. SL is beautiful, smooth and fast.

A nice video card will change your Second Life graphical experience for the better. the 9500GT 1GB is around 50-65 bucks at Newegg.com and would be a world of difference, if you cannot afford a more expensive card - which may require you upgrading something like your power supply -yech.

SL = Laptop killer.

SL killed my Sony Vaio laptop in 2005.

SL fried my HP Dv6000 laptop in 2006

SL fried my HP Dv6000 AGAIN in 2007

I'll never use a laptop with SL again unless it is one of those super laptops gaming rigs meant for sustained high heat performing.

Even with my 7300, it's still a helluva lot faster than dial-up or satellite, even if I had the best video card out there. Recently spent some time with my relatives in rural areas, and even getting a webpage up made me want to tear out my hair.

There's no place like home, there's no place like home...

On my laptop, I use Nicholaz Old School: no Windlight, no voice, no problem. (so far...)

ETA: I'm glad to hear the 9500 works well, that much I might be able to afford at Christmas.

Now, someone please check my understanding... if the 1st number is the series and the 2nd number indicates high or low end, would I be better off with an 8800gt or a 9500gt?

This is SL on Low graphics:



And on Ultra:



Yeah, a better graphics adapter can make SL look a lot better.

Briana, it looks like the card is actually over 100 bucks on newegg. TY for all the info, though! And thanks also for including a reminder about the power supply. I have a new one I haven't installed yet that will provide more power.

I think "massive texture lag" does pretty much sum up my experience. I've had to give up on visiting the current skin fair. I could go take a nap in the time it takes one image to rez.

I am grateful for the warnings about laptops.

Oh drat, NOW I remember why I thought a new card would end up costing more than I could afford.

But if it helps... $54.99

Sorry for the horrendous long URL...

Oh hell yes a new card will help.


Does the 9500 have per-pixel shading? I thought with Nvidia it was the cards ending with 600 or higher. I do not know what the new numbering scheme is since I have never had a reason to look it up. But yes, while your 7100 is a very nice web browsing graphic card it is lacking some things on the GPU that will make SL and other games really shine. Add to that the fact that it is on the MB ... it may well be using shared memory. You can get a 7900 for under 50 bucks and you will be flat amazed at how much better everything runs and how crisp it looks.
I would suggest an 8800 or better in the 8K series or a 9600 or better in the 9K series.

Lots of effects will look better, and you can extend draw distance and textures held in memory. If you can get a 9600 series or a 9800 GT, you'll get more shaders, more memory, and a 256-bit memory bus (compared to the 64-bit bus in your 7100 GPU). That is assuming you have PCI or PCI Express slots. If you have an AGP slot for video, there's not much you can do to improve your video card.

The 8800GT is better.

9500GT:
32 processor cores
128 bit memory interface
may contain DDR2 (bad) or GDDR3 (good)

8800GT:
112 processor cores
256 bit memory interface
GDDR3

I believe the 8800 would be better.

OK. My computer has this:
1 (1 free) PCI-E x16 Graphics Interface Slot

I'm running a quad core with 4 gigs of RAM for my RL job. I got a business system rather than a "gaming" system, telling people I would never be into 3D gaming anyway. That was about a month before I found SL.

I know bupkus about video cards. I would like to have something that won't run too hot, if indeed video cards can run hot. I would also like to minimize the expense, of course. I see people recommending 9500, 9600, 9800, and now 8800? I wish these numbers had some meaning for me but they don't.

The first number is the series number, and is an indication of how recently the card was released, so cards numbered 7xxx are older than 8xxx, and we are now on 9xxx. The second number is the most important to look at: the higher it is the better, so, for instance, a 8800 is better than a 9300, if that makes sense.

I have always used laptops for SL. The graphics card in my first one used to overheat and shut itself down sometimes (it was some crappy ATI thing) and I retired it and gave it to my son for his homework (he still runs runescape on it fine and it's several years old now). My second one, the hard drives wore out before the graphics card (NVidia 7300 if I remember right). I just got a new one with an NVidia 9800 and I have to say, SL is stunning! (when I get time to go on there, which is not a lot the past few weeks).

Best advice is, if you are using a laptop, for goodness' sake don't use it on your lap (or any other soft surface). Leave plenty of space for air to circulate and dust the fans underneath regularly.

First digit is series number. Second digit is rank in the series. Third and fourth numbers are the third and fourth numbers: they don't really have any function other than to make the card sound more impressive (why buy an 88GT when you can have an 8800GT?).

There is very little practical difference between the 8x00 cards and their 9x00 equivalent. For SL, the second number is important. 5 or better will work, but 6 or better will handle all of the Windlight effects. The 9500GT will work, but will fall behind as SL increases its requirements. The 9600GT or the 8800GT/9800GT will keep pace with SL for longer, and is a better investment if you can afford it.

(Looks like spinster Voom beat me to the post)

The 9x00 is no longer the newest series..the GT[S/X] 2xx series is newer, and more confusingly numbered as it contains both single GPU cards and dual GPU cards, as well as putting the GT_ modifier before the number, instead of after.

Also be warned that the same number is a different card on the Nvidia mobile series...I have a GTX 260m in my laptop, which has 112 core processors. A GTX 260 has either 192 or 216 if it is a desktop card. Someone at Nvida needs a serious flogging for coming up with their numbering system.

I have also always run SL on a laptop. Until about a month ago, I had a Pentium M running at 1.86 GHz with Intel 915 graphics. Now I have a Core 2 Quad at 2.0 GHz and Nvidia GTX 260m graphics. The difference is night and day going from running at just acceptable farmerates at pre-Windlight settings to full effects, 4x antialiasing, and 256 meter draw distance.

You can safely ignore any card with a model number beginning with a 5,6,7 or 8.

Buy a 9000 series card, with the highest number as the second digit as your budget allows. The 9800GT is awesome for SL. The 9800GTX and 9800GTX+ are a little more awesome. A 9500 or 9600 will do a good job.

Note the higher end cards require more power. You may need to upgrade your power supply to run them.

You can get a 9800GT for less than a hundred bucks. A lot less if you're into mail in rebates.

I'm actually not running SL on a laptop. I do have an older laptop and have toyed with installing it on that (but probably won't). I'm talking about a PC tower.

Veritable, your explanation makes sense to me. TY. On the newegg page, there seems to be one 8800GT for 99 bucks, and then a list of VGA coolers? So it does run hot?
http://tinyurl.com/y9rsbz2

The 8800 and the 9800 cost the same. Ongoing puzzlement.

Ha!


Noooo! Don't tell me that! I can't keep up

I love my new lappy, it's a huge great Toshiba thingy with lairy orange flames all over the lid

The 9800GT is a slightly tweaked version of the 8800GT. Unless the cost savings are significant, get the 9800GT.

Also, if the 8800GT has something other than 512MB or 1GB if memory, pass on it regardless of cost. Well, unless it's insanely cheap like thirty bucks.

They can run hot. And SL does tend to make video cards work hard, increasing heat. If there is good airflow in your computer case, just the cooler that comes on the card should be fine.

The 8800GT and the 9800GT are the same GPU. There is no major difference. They have the same number of core processors, and run at the same clock speeds. There are a few minor features that are newer on the 9800 card, but that's it. You will not see a difference in SL between the two.

(Unless, as Milla Janick pointed out, the amount of memory is different.)