This is not oriented towards people looking for the highest-end card out there. Those of you "hardcore" users with unlimited funds don't need my help.
I've been a hardcore gamer since the 80's (viva la Commodore-64!) - and have had 3d graphics cards since "3dfx" starting making cards that ran well with "Quake", about 10 years ago.I don't have a lot of money, so I can't actually play SL with a bunch of different cards to give "custom" advice - but if someone wants to fund me, I'd be happy to do so!
I get my information from serious research online of a variety of reputable hardware-review sites, price-indexing sites, brand & driver complaints, etc.Note that this information will change over time. I hope to update this thread every few months or something.
If anyone has questions about upgrading their video card, I'd be happy to help. Doing the research is work; actually switching the card is usually very easy. You can always IM/Email me, as long as you have read this entire post carefully before contacting me!
Before I begin talking about the cards, I want to address a few things:
1) I do not have a "favorite" brand of card or graphics chip. My intent here is to promote a few graphics chip models from the two major players in the market: ATI & nVidia. I leave it up to you to track down a brand & source. I like www.pricewatch.com - but you need to be very very careful when buying any graphics card. Also, there are some "scam" companies on Pricewatch. You can use www.resellerratings.com to check companies out before buying - and if a deal looks "too good to be true", it is!
2) Always be sure you are getting the exact model of card you expect - call the company and talk it over with them, if necessary.
3) There are two types of graphics slots on most machines these days: AGP & PCI-Express (aka "PCIE"
. Only machines bought in the last few months are likely to have a PCI-E slot; so make sure you get the type of card that works with your machine!4) Some people on the forums here trash ATI. There are plenty of strong feelings about brands when it comes to video cards - I've been in both camps (and admit to using nVidia more, over my life)... However, actual facts about ATI problems with SL are hard to substantiate - there seeems to be a lot more rumor & speculation. Therefore, I consider both chips to be equally suitable. As long as LindenLab continues to use standard OpenGL and/or DirectX for SecondLife, both nVidia & ATI chips will work well.
5) BEWARE: There are "stripped down" models of video cards, carrying certain designations. I personally recommend against getting these cards, as they aren't usually as good from a price-perfomance perspective. With ATI, the "SE" line is to be avoided; and with nVidia its the "MX" and "LE" lines that you should definitely avoid.
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There are cards out there that cost upwards of $700... However, I will not be covering them. In fact, I will begin with cards around the $200 - $250 range. The reason for this, is because there is a big price break around $250. Once you get above that mark, you start paying a lot of extra money for only small performance gains. If you have a spare $350 - $400, then by all means, get the expensive card... But for most people with a system that's 1 - 2 years old, I would recommend going with a mid-level card and upgrading your CPU & RAM instead (assuming your Motherboard can handle a faster CPU and more RAM).
So I consider ~$200 - $275 to be the "sweet spot" of the video card market. This is where you can get a fairly-high-performance chip, without breaking the bank. The cards you can get in this range will serve you well for a good 1 - 2 years before getting "dated". In short, you get the best bang for your buck in this realm.
ATI & nVidia each recently released new chips that compete well against each other in this price-range. They are the "ATI X700 Pro", and the "nVidia GeForce 6600 GT".
Note: remember the letters on the end are always important!
Looking at benchmarks and driver reports from a variety of cards using these chips, I have to say that the difference between these cards is small; and depends partly on the game you're playing.
Most game benchmarks show the ATI X700 Pro slightly behind the nVidia 6600 GT - however, a fast CPU with good RAM running at high-resolution can capitalize on some of the ATI's features and nose it ahead.
The ATI X700 Pro is only available in PCI-E form right now; and tests indicate its probably only better than the nVidia on newer systems anyways. However, it is somewhat cheaper than the nVidia - and is worth keeping an eye on, because there are some talks about an AGP version coming available sometime early this year; and with newer cards coming out, the AGP "ATI X800" line might start dropping in price.
The nVidia 6600 GT is available in both PCI-E and AGP models - so its better suited to upgrading a system that's not brand new. Its got good all-around specs and performance - but (ignoring the AGP vs. PCI-E issues), the nVidia 6600 GT is priced a little higher than the ATI X700 Pro.
If $200 - $250 is too high for you; or you'd rather save your money towards a newer computer, there is still a good option out there for "budget cards" that can run todays 3d games fairly well:
ATI's Radeon 9800 Pro (128MB version) is still a good "budget" card for around $150.
Even though this chip is "old" compared to the latest generation of products, it was built with a pretty advanced architecture; and the newer ATI drivers are still managing to squeeze some good performance out of this chip. You'll see a noticeable difference in performance vs. $200 - $400 cards, but a game like SL will play well on a Radeon 9800 Pro. If your system is 2 - 3 years old already, your CPU won't be able to keep up with the more expensive cards anyways. In this case, I would argue for saving your money towards a whole new computer; and go with this budget-card as a "stop-gap" to tide you over for the next 6 - 12 months.
With the "customize" option from major computer-makers like Dell & Gateway (among others), you can usually get a new computer more cheaply if you leave out the monitor, go with a cheapo video card (or leave it out entirely), & leave out some of the hard-drives & CD-ROM drives. Simply transfer these things over from your current machine - and use the money you've saved to buy a better graphics card a month or 2 after you buy the new computer. Just make sure that the computer you buy can be fitted with an upgraded graphics card!
If you want to go even lower in price, you can get a "top-end" GeForce4 for around $100; but it will only have 64MB of RAM and become "out-dated" fairly quickly, IMHO. Its technologically inferior to the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro in a lot of ways, but only slightly cheaper - so I'd say you're better off saving up for a better card.
For further reading - if you want tons of gory details - check out this huge article on Tom's Hardware Guide. Its one of my favorite hardware review sites; and although the article is 2 months old, it follows my findings pretty closely:
http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041110/buyers_guide-01.html
Hope you find this information helpful! Enjoy!
Take care,
--Noel "HB" Wade
(Tread Whiplash)