Nvidia Graphics Card. Whats, the latest?

I'll be upgrading my PC shortly which is mainly used for SL. What's the latest and greatest supported Nvidia card for SL?

I currently have 1 meg of ram on the motherboard and will add more if needed.

I'm also trying to verify that my motherboard will support the new Nvidia card.

Thanks in advance.

Simple answer: This!

I hope you have a spare arm and a leg for this. You may need a better power supply too.

What MB is that, an 8086? What u gonna go with all that extra meg of ram?

Hope it will run dual SLI GeForce 8800GTX...and then maybe you can play some Pong with no lag.

While it's not the latest, greatest, I just got a new system with an EVGA GForce 7600GT 256 MB and have been thrilled with its performance in SL. Latest greatest is going to cost you, so it would be better to sit down and decide how much performance you are willing to pay for. There is a huge gap between what someone else on these forums called "the sweet spot" between $180 - $250 for graphics cards and top-of-the-line. Beyond the sweet spot you are paying top dollar for only a slight gain in performance.

FedEx has their hands on my new 7600GS which will (hopefully) be delivered today.
You can find it at the following link for $50 after rebates.

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=203000306&loc=32767&adid=17662

That is probably the best "bang for the buck" you're going to find.


I'll post again later once I see exactly what type of perfomance increase I get over my ATI X300 (el cheapo that came with my system) card.


You can also find the 7600GT for around $120 or the 7600GTS for $100if you search the deal sites
www.slickdeals.net
www.fatwallet.com

Thank you all so much for your replies. I'll probably go with one of the higher end 7000 series cards. Now to find the best deal. I'll check those sites out that were suggested above.

Geddy, please do post your observations after you install your new Nvidia.

Just installed the 7600GS
Oh what a difference a REAL video card makes!

With my X300 I was lucky to get 15-18FPS, even in empty areas
Now I'm averaging 30FPS in quiet areas that have objects that need to be rendered and when I just went to Bad Girls and IceDragon's I was getting 15-20FPS pretty consistantly... with the X300 I was never above 10FPS in busy sims and usually more like 7-8FPS.


One thing I did notice right away... with my X300 the affinity trick for dual core processors had no significant impact... with the 7600GS it REALLY makes a difference to change the affinity.


Anyway... this will go down among the best damn $50 computer purchases I've ever made!

I too use the 7600.

www.newegg.com was the cheapest I could find it, and the package deal for that and RAM was sweet!

I've been running SL the past 3 years on my nVidia Qudro FX3000 card, a professional workstation card, which I spent $1500 on since regular consumer end video cards could not handle Maya properly at the time. My SL experience has been 15-25 FPS on a good day ever since. To me, that's just what SL was. I didn't know any different.

Well, a couple weeks ago, I demoed SL for someone who had a Dell XPS with a GeForce 7600 in it. Wow, what a difference. I was getting 70 FPS at my usual settings. So, I maxed everything, and I was still getting a solid 25+. As Geddy said, it's amazing what a difference a REAL card makes.

Not that my Quadro is any slouch, mind you. It beautifully handles programs it was meant for. It's just not designed for gaming, and although SL is not a game, it operates like one in many ways.

Anyway, since the 8800 was mentioned, anyone thinking about getting one might want to read Lawrence Linden's post on how to make it work with SL under Win XP x64.

steer clear of the 7900 series,ive just returned a 7900GTX as it was showing the "classic" 7900 issues (flashing screen after 3d apps have closed,fps pulsing).

a quick google brings up threads like this:

http://www.bjorn3d.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8465

Lazy.

Wow,,,,. And I was going to go with a 7900 series. I automatically assumed that it would,,, or should,, out class the 7600 line!

From the posts above, it sure seems like the 7600 GS is the way to go,, so,,,,,, off I go to find one!

Thanks again for all of the information!!!!!!!

Good Lord!!!!!!

There's so many 7600 GS and GT models,,, I don't know which one to select! Any advice would be appreciated!

I use 2 x 7800 GTx's; when I first installed and used with SL, I'd get FPS of 100-250. However, that was before 1.7, and something in the releases since seem to have throttled the max you can get, intentional or not. Still, they're good enough to ensure that the performance bottleneck is not on my PC.

According to the Wikipedia article here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_7_Series


The 7600 GS is the low end of the line
The 7600 GTS is a mid point between the GS and the GT
The 7600 GT is the high-mid range of the line


I have the GT and it reportedly comes in both PCI Express and AGP.

Thanks Isablan for the link.

How do you like your GT?

I upgraded from a 7600GS to a 7600GT and the difference was substantial. There may be faster cards out there, but I'm lovin' the GT and it stays under my personal threshold of $200 for a graphics card.

Well then,,, it's a 7600GT for me! Thanks!!!!!!!

Hmm interesting that the 7600 is so much better than the 7900 .. at the moment.

How long before an update comes through that's moved the goalposts again? .. not that I'm suggesting in the least that there may be a time when a 7900 works but a 7600 just won't cut it!

Bilbo, I gather from those who have leveled up much higher on the geek-o-meter than I have, ideally, you upgrade your graphics card every year or every two years at the outside to take advantage of newer, faster products coming into the market.

Carolyn, you might also double check your power supply. I know when I was ordering my system they suggested a bigger power supply (485w) to accommodate the graphics card. The 7600GS needed additional power as well and there is an adapter provided to run directly from the power supply instead of going through the motherboard.

Believe me,, I would rather spend the extra money now and go for the latest entry in the Nvidia line in order to get the longest possible use and SL support for the card.

I really would've liked to go for a 7800AGP,, but I'm still a bit gun shy as to it's compatability with SL. Maybe when I'm finally ready to buy, (next week), I'll have received more information in these forums to make the best decision possible.

Regarding the power supply,,,, I plan to check it's rating this evening. More than likely I'll have to upgrade that as well.

What power rating would I need for a 7600 or 7800 card?

Oh how I dream of reaching the dizzy heights of the geek-o-meter!
Sadly, I'm floundering about on it's lower neighbour the Luddite-o-meter ... I blame it on the size of these feet.

Carolyn, well look at it this way..AGP is basically a dinosaur in the graphics world. I don't even think you can still buy motherboards with it, everything has gone PCI Express. Your next computer will have PCI Express and the card you are about to buy won't be usable on a new motherboard (which is why I have a new GT instead of the GS...) So, you have to also consider here the anticipated replacement date of your current motherboard (or entire system) and whether you want to spend big money on a card that is only going to last as long as your current motherboard. Personally, I'm not sure I would spend $250 on a card that is already obsolete, but we each have our line in the sand based on benefit/cost ratio....

Just more things to consider as you are making your decision.

Isablan,

I'm beginning to get a very clear picture now regarding my current system. The picture say's,,, replace it! Which I was going to do but I was hoping to breathe a little more life into what I already had.

Oh well, guess I'll have to wait until I build up the funds for a new PC.

Thanks for making me aware of my systems limitations regarding AGP and not investing on antiquated technology!!!

My personal threshold for what is worth investing to upgrade an AGP system is about half that. So a 7600GS at $100-125 is worth looking at (or for the ATI fans, a Radeon X1600); a 7800GS is simply too expensive.

On the other hand, there is a REALLY great deal on the PCI Express version of the 7600GS at the moment (somebody else posted a link). You might be able to buy it AND a low-end PCI Express motherboard for what the AGP card would cost, and you would then have a system with more future potential (though you'd have to do more work to get it). But make sure your existing CPU and RAM are compatible.