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Video Cards
About Truespace Archives
These pages are a copy of the official truespace forums prior to their removal somewhere around 2011.
They are retained here for archive purposes only.
Video Cards // Archive: Tech Forum
Post by chromedragon // Jun 19, 2007, 6:47am
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chromedragon
Total Posts: 33
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Hello, Since Truespace is a hobby (try to use when I can), I find that I cannot justify the expense of a serious video card that will help me render my images.
Can anyone provide names (and models) of video cards that are of low cost but provide sufficient power to render my images?
I know someone is going to ask "What do you mean by low cost?" Well, this means I will not spen much over $200.00 for the card, even if I get a refurbished or used card.
Thanks for any help. |
Post by splinters // Jun 19, 2007, 7:25am
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splinters
Total Posts: 4148
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I ran tS 7.1 absolutely fine on a Radeon 9800 Pro. A Geforce 7900GT gives me all the bells and whistles in 7.51. I guess they are still pretty cheap...:D |
Post by Bobbins // Jun 19, 2007, 7:40am
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Bobbins
Total Posts: 506
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Using a 7600GT here. Performance is very good for the price - no complaints. |
Post by chromedragon // Jun 19, 2007, 2:39pm
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chromedragon
Total Posts: 33
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What should I look for when shopping for a video card? Mind you, I am not a gamer, the card I currently have (NVidia GeForce4 4200) seems to do the job well, but it doesn't render Truespace screens too well. |
Post by Jack Edwards // Jun 19, 2007, 2:59pm
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Jack Edwards
Total Posts: 4062
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7600 or better. It's cheap enough now that I wouldn't bother with anything less. The 7900GS are very nice and also inexpensive.
7300's are dissapointingly slow so it's worth it to pay the few extra dollars for the "real deal".
-Jack. |
Post by Changa // Jun 20, 2007, 11:02am
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Changa
Total Posts: 187
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I ran tS 7.1 absolutely fine on a Radeon 9800 Pro.
Splinters, have you ever seen the anything similar ? My Radeon 9800 Pro works like this in TS WorkSpace with full quality shading hardware settings. Card fault:confused: ? |
Post by splinters // Jun 20, 2007, 12:14pm
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splinters
Total Posts: 4148
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Nope, never seen that before...driver fault? |
Post by Changa // Jun 20, 2007, 11:02pm
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Changa
Total Posts: 187
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Nope, never seen that before...driver fault?
Just have loaded the fresh one. No changes. Sometimes it also happenes when PC starting after standby. Looks like lost synchronization. |
Post by 3dvisuals dude // Jun 20, 2007, 11:27pm
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3dvisuals dude
Total Posts: 1703
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Splinters, have you ever seen the anything similar ? My Radeon 9800 Pro works like this in TS WorkSpace with full quality shading hardware settings. Card fault:confused: ?
Wow.
I have an old Radeon 9550 that works fine (although it doesn't support the newer shadow shading features which I think yours does) and still I've never seen anything like that happen on my system at all! :confused:
If you have DirectX9.0c and also the latest driver update and that ~still~ doesn't help you with this I'd be returning that card ASAP!!!
Good luck!
- 3dvisuals dude |
Post by frootee // Jun 21, 2007, 1:56am
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frootee
Total Posts: 2667
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Hi chromedragon.
What to look for:
* memory: 256 MB or more. Don't waste your time or money with anything less.
* Make sure the card is DIRECTX 9.0C COMPLIANT. Truespace uses this for real time rendering.
* AGP or PCI Express? You need to identify which type of slot on the motherboard your current video card uses. Most likely it is AGP, since it sounds like it's been around awhile (a 4200 or so?). You may need to open the case to make sure; also you need to identify whether it is AGP 2X/4X/8X. There are some utilities out there that profile your computer system, and tell you what your system is composed of.
* Core clock frequency: higher is better
* Max Resolution: bigger is better: 1600 x 1200 minimum is good if you have a 19" or so monitor
*** VERY IMPORTANT: Check the power supply specifications for the card. New cards require a power supply connection. I think typically you need around a 350W - 500W power supply. O.W. bad things will happen.
HTH!
Frootee
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Post by chromedragon // Jun 21, 2007, 6:49am
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chromedragon
Total Posts: 33
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Thanks frootee. I have a program called Sanda that tells all about my pc. I need to check the power supply though to be sure it is large enough.
Now, I find the words: "Gaming" video card. Even though I am not gaming, do these video cards apply if they meet the requirements you listed? |
Post by frootee // Jun 21, 2007, 11:09am
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frootee
Total Posts: 2667
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Hey there chromedragon. You're welcome!
Are you using truespace 5.2? I notice that in your posts. Just curious.
Sorry for the delayed response.
I would say that, if the Gaming cards you are finding support directx, then they should be fine. Games and Truespace both use DirectX for realtime display of data.
Check out newegg.com and tigerdirect.com. They both have really low prices on high quality PC products. My favorite is newegg. You can get some really nice cards for well under $200. I got an nVidia 6600 about 1.5 years ago for $115, then an ATI X1600(Pro?) for $120 a couple months later for my other machine. The 1600 runs ts 7.51 pretty well, so if you are running ts 5.2, you should have no trouble getting a really butt-kicking video card for well under $200.
HTH!
Frootee |
Post by chromedragon // Jun 22, 2007, 7:52pm
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chromedragon
Total Posts: 33
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Yes, I am running 5.2. I started when v1.0SE (floppy) became available, many years ago, but am just beginning to really get into TS. I know my PC is a bit slow on the CPU side (2.4GHZ), but for the most part, it serves me well at this time. I did bring home a 7600, but I cannot remember if it was a GT or GS. TS ran extremely slow when rendering, but I did notice an increase in speed when playing a game. One day when I can justify the cost of TS7, I will upgrade, but right now as it stands, I just don't have enough "evidence" to convince my better half the expense of upgrading.:D |
Post by frootee // Jun 23, 2007, 2:57am
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frootee
Total Posts: 2667
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That's cool. A 7600? NIICE!
Later!
frootee |
Post by felixsg // Jun 23, 2007, 10:06pm
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felixsg
Total Posts: 28
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Splinters, have you ever seen the anything similar ? My Radeon 9800 Pro works like this in TS WorkSpace with full quality shading hardware settings. Card fault:confused: ?
Appear a overhot of the graphics card
you need to see if the fun of the graphics card is working
or if you change the velocity of you graphics card
see in a game need two much resources and if you see the same white pixels that is the problem |
Post by StewMaster44 // Oct 29, 2007, 4:30am
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StewMaster44
Total Posts: 28
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I've got a question about how trueSpace handles the hardware during the rendering process... aside from real-time rendering through DirectX and OpenGL, does trueSpace really use the graphics card during the rendering process, or is it just the cpu? |
Post by Scala3D // Oct 29, 2007, 4:49am
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Scala3D
Total Posts: 157
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I have an SLI configuration using two GeForce 7900GS 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 KO Video Cards and the TS7.51 demo runs great and renders fast; even Vray renders fast. So I take it that TS7.51 takes advantage of a duel core, duel graphics card system? At least from what I am seeing. |
Post by rjeff // Oct 29, 2007, 4:54am
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rjeff
Total Posts: 1260
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Well I jsut bought a EVGA 8600 from Newegg for 170ish. I like it alot |
Post by Jack Edwards // Oct 29, 2007, 5:35am
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Jack Edwards
Total Posts: 4062
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DX9 rendering uses the video card. VRay and Lightworks rendering is CPU only. All the render engines take advantage multi-core though. |
Post by TomG // Oct 29, 2007, 8:02am
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TomG
Total Posts: 3397
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Dual graphcis cards are taken advantage of by the graphics card drivers - applications at the level of tS are unaware of their being one or two graphics cards (or more), and they just pass the information on what to draw to the driver. The driver handles dividing up the work between the two cards to take best advantage of them - thus any 3D application (and that would include games, as well as 3D modeling apps, etc) will "take advantage" of dual graphics cards.
EVGA are a company I like, been using them for my last few of cards (a 6600, 7600 and now an 8600 if I remember right) and I like them a lot. Nothing to do with Caligari or an endorsement by the company, just my personal opinion.
HTH!
Tom |
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