video card question

anyone ever use this video card: http://microcenter.com/byos/byos_single_product_results.phtml?product_id=217885
with second life? i'm thinking about getting it....but don't want to spend the money on it if it sucks. thanks!

You may have better luck if you post this in Tech Issues.

I'm not sure what kind of performance you get at the moment although I can tell you that the video card mentioned in the above link is better than the one I have and SL works fine for me at 128 meter draw with everything else maxed.

that one is no good do not buy that one. I had the 9600XT AIW AGPx4 and it was slow. I now have a new system with a GF XFX 7600GT 256M PCI Express x16 and it is very good.

If I was you keep away from ATi if your going to be playing SL at all cost.

My New Computer

Steve, reckon a 7600gs would be suitable for Sonia? Judging by the price of the card in the link, I'd imagine cost is a factor.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814133010
This card is not very fast but I know some one that uses it for SL and it works ok. try looking on newegg.com if you in the USA

Better yet, buy it on ebay and save $20

I upgraded to a Radeon 9550 LOL

I am quite satisfied with its performance. I realise there are some top-end visual effects missing (unless there are some redundant sliders in edit appearance) but I'm more than happy with it Sonia.

I upgraded my RAM from 512Mb to 1Gb at the same time which also help immensely.


Edit: I notice that Steve's nVidia OpenGL is 1.5 as opposed to the ATIs 1.4. That might swing it.

hehe yeah i can't really spend $300 on a video card. i'm thinking something under $100 is more in my budget. I saw a lot of stuff on newegg that i might look into but i don't know what does what. there's tons of videocards on there for less than $70....my boyfriend has the radeon 9800, has had it since november and it works fine...it doesn't crash like it does for a lot of people...but because a lot of people have problems with it i'm kind of reluctant to get it.

So I have a geforce 6150 in my laptop and it works pretty well but I lose a lot of background detail, i have to have the settings very low otherwise I lag alot.

Basically I am a builder and a texture-er so I need something a little better so that I can take halfway decent snapshots of my builds/textures for when I try to sell them. If you look at my SL boutique products the photos are ok but a little jagged in parts. I'm not a hardcore gamer so I don't need the absolute greatest thing ever made.....but yeah...a little more detail would be nice.

My dad gave me a reject computer from the hospital that he works at (they upgraded to new comps and were throwing their old computers away). So I need to get it a video card if I want it to have any use at all. I did find some 7600 and 7800 geforces for $100-$150 at tiger direct....that might be in my range after i get my tax refund

Some people if you look hard enough will give you good and bad reviews of eveything Sonia. When I bought my 9550 I was horrified to see people here saying 'oh no! don't run ATI!!!' LOL

My 'next' computer will I'm sure be a PCIE nVidia gfx but I'm not envisaging it just yet. I'm happy being 'middle of the road' just now.

Until the data rates at LL grow a bit, the top end cards will simply be sitting there whistling

If I were you I would definitely wait, save up, and go for the 7600. Try to get a 7600GT if you can, definitely the most bang for your buck you can get at the moment IMHO.

LOL...well its true.


For the same price as an ATI card, you will get a better performing NVidia card.

I'll never go back to ATI again.

I had one many years ago and the thing wouldn't even run its own demo to show me how cool it was without crashing....switched to a voodoo 3 at that time.

I then bought another ATI a year ago and it crashed last July while I was in SL..it lasted about 4 or 5 months.

Switched to a comparable nvidia and I have had no problems since.

For just under 100 how about a Geforce 6600GT? That should go circles around a 9550.

Supposedly Nvidia does better with SL than ATI. (Dunno, I'm an ATI girl at the moment.) And that one is suppose to be a bit above the 9800Pro.

I'm using the 9550 and find it adequate. It doesn't suck, but it's also not great. It's certainly better than my previous one, the Radeon All-In-Wonder. The main reason I went with ATI was that it was what I was used to (and at least years ago, they had a good reputation with regard to releasing specs so that third parties could write specialized drivers or for platforms such as Linux). I don't care for their support web site, but tickets do get answered. It remains to be seen how they'll be now that they're owned by AMD.

I got it on sale at Best Buy, and it was worth the sale price. Given the information here, I would have gotten an NVidia if I had it to do over again. I just wasn't familiar with their line and didn't want to take the time to learn it.

By the way, Wikipedia has some good articles comparing cards from a historic perspective. Since most recent reviews are on the new, high end cards, the Wikipedia articles are useful for the older cards, such as this.

To bad SL dont support SLI. I myself have daul nvidia geforce 7950 gx'2 but I can only use one of them on SL. I would love to see how it runs once the day comes for SL to support quad SLI

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130062

ok i think i'm gonna get this one. 5 stars from 180 reviews.....it will probably work for me...and the price isn't too bad.

That's a PCIe card though, not an AGP one.

ahhh. so it probably wouldn't work much better than the one i have inmy laptop.

PCI express is newer than AGP or PCI, and is faster. (Unless I've misunderstood your post!) As long as your motherboard supports it.
I have a PCI-e, EVGA branded GeForce 7600 GT. Works wonderfully for SL, in my opinion.


Mmm, I had a Radeon 9800 XT, and it worked well. I prefer my GeForce 7600 GT, though.

I have an ATI x600 in my laptop- I think that`s really bad.