Video Cards

I just downloaded SL and I tried to run it and it said that I needed a more updated video card. Is there a place to download this or do i have to buy it from a store?

Right before anyone jumps in here with sarcastic and venomous comments (gee such a jaded forum view already lol)

Right, it says you need a new VIDEO CARD, this means the actual physical graphics card inside your machine isnt good enough to play the game...

You can buy a new graphics card from various computer shops depending on where you live, you could even buy one online, ranging from a very small to a very large price.

I hope this helps

Highly recomend a Geforce 6600GT or a 6800GS.

Do you know what graphics card you currently have?

It may be capable of it and just not have correct drivers installed, just before u start splashing out your cash thought we better check

I hate to bring it up but there is also the possibility that your machine may not have a slot to put an upgrade graphics card in.

If it's a brand name machine Dell, Compaq, whatever post a model number and I or one of the other tech savvy's that are lurking out here can look it up and see if it can be and what kind of card you need.

If it's a custom built you're more likely to have an upgrade path but which path becomes the question.

It might have an AGP slot or it might have PCI express.

So you'll probably need to have a local techie take a look.

L8r,
UU

As a couple other people have said you need to buy a new one.

Let me ask you a couple questions

1) Is your PC Homebuilt or a Name Brand (Dell, Compaq etc)?
2) If it is a name brand who is maker and what is the modle number?
3) How much money are you willing to spend on a video card?

If you can get me that infomration I can help you out.

1) its a name brand
2) the brand maker is dell and I dont realy understand the "model number" part scince... well... im only 13
3) how much do they usualy cost?

If it is a dell it will be written on the front of it, ie Dimension 2400 or something usually near the power button.

They range from $80 to $600 depending on performance.

its a 4400 dimention
DAMN $80 to $600? i dont got that money on me

Dimension 4400, it has an AGP slot and I remeber them coming with a decent video card.

Try something for me, go to controll pannel, display, then click on the settings tab, underneeth the little picture of the monitor it will sayDisplay: and right under that say something about your monitor and video card. Can you look at that and tell me what it says?

Dell E771a on NVIDIA GeForce2 MX/MX 400 (Microsoft Corporation)

That should be capable of running SL, not great but it should run.

So go download the latest drivers for your video card here:
http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp


(Click on Graphics Driver, then Geforce & TNT2, then which ever version of Windows you use)

install them and see if SL will run.

I would reccomend getting a better video card, as you have an AGP slot on the 4400 you have a lot you can choose from. Time to do some summer jobs and save

Hope that gets you running.

ok i went to that web site and there was 3 choices to choose from:
Linux, FreeBSD, and Solaris Drivers
BETA Drivers
NVIDIA Business Platform Drivers
should I choose one of these and if i should which one?(srry for all the questions, i just want to make shure)

Ignor the top ones there you want the ones in the middle of your screen.

Actually what version of WIndows are you running I will get you a direct link

windows XP home edition

http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_81.98.html

There ya go

No one else caught this? heh

Teen Second Life users post here too

I thought they had their own forums? Me thinks someone lied about their age at account creation.

Thanx for the catch--just posting that I did notice it and it'll be taken care of by the appropriate Linden authorities.

Dun Dun Duuuuh!

I'm thinking about getting a new motherboard, but it has to be compatible with and friendly toward SL (of course). It is advertised as having an nVIDIA GeFORCE 6100 video adapter built in. Some interesting specs mentioned with the advertisement include:

- 128 MB
- Hyper Transport 1600MHz FSB
- 1xPCI Expressx16 PORT
- DOUBLE the bandwidth -4GB/s bi-directional- of 8xAGP -2.1GB/s-

My sense is that this is a pretty decent spec for SL. Does anyone have any advice or insights? One thing I've discovered is that different people have different sources of lag in SL, so I'm eager to know what other people think before I sink a few hundred bucks into it.

- Lavanya

The Geforce 6100 is like the Radeon Xpress, its crap. Not even low budget. Honestly don't go looking for a motherboard with onboard video, you'll just have headaches because it'll use more system resources for the most mundane things that a standalone card does on its own. Plus pretty much all games run like crap on onboard graphics cards. Find a nice MSI, Asus, or Gigabyte motherboard using the nForce4 chipset and PCI-e slot(s) then plop in a Geforce 6600GT or a Geforce 6800GS.

I respect your opinion, and I'll probably go for a separate card. But I wouldn't be so quick to berate on-motherboard video. I have an old laptop -- a Dell D600 -- with on-board video. Considering it's a business machine, the fact that it runs SL at all is impressive, and I've been using it since I was "born". I also have a newer HP Pavillion ZD8000 laptop with an on-card ATI video adapter with 128 MB of dedicated memory. That one has very smooth animation in SL, even on full screen with all the rendering toys turned on and a draw distance of 128m.

Perhaps your misgivings stem from experiences you may have had with video cards that use "shared memory", a crafty way of saying "no memory". These adapters actually piggyback onto your computer's main memory and so will only barely function in SL at maybe 1 FPS on even a hearty machine on a good day. I would warn anyone to steer clear of any laptop or video card that advertises a video adapter with "shared memory" if you plan to run SL on it.

That said, I kinda assume that one benefit of on-board video chip-sets is that the vendors can choose the fastest possible bus configuration instead of worrying about using a more standard card slot. But then, I haven't really kept up with the market much.

I'm curious to know if you have a sort of standard test that you would use to determine whether a video card is any good for SL. That is, what settings would you try? And maybe, which sim would you visit? A clear test configuration might be a good way of weighing one card against another.

- Lavanya

Regarding video cards, does anyone have an opinion on the difference, in the context of SL, between the ATI Radeon 9250 and the ATI Radeon 9600? Both have 256 MB of RAM.

- Lavanya