Im thinking of bying a new graphics card and I need some advice from other 3D-fiddlers. For example, how important is the memory-capacity? Can I use a card with 256 Mb memory or should I go for 512? Im considering a GeForce 6200, with 256 Mb memory, Turbo cache(?), etc...

Do you game?

I gotta have a faster computer to even go 256 or so I've been told. (I'm at 1.6 now.) You might check minimum computer speed before buying. Man, 512'd be nice for some of the high-end games (if you don't need it now you will in a year or so); I thinks you'd want some good cooling to go with it. For just 3D modeling I think you'd be o.k. with 256. Computer memory and bus speeds play a role and might be as or more important.

I just play strategy- and adventuregames, so the main object is to get some good results with my 3D-projects. Although the family-youngsters who lurks around my computer may want to use the computer in other ways.

Stoner i have a radeon 9600SE 128mb graphics card. Its good for 3d work and i can play most of the games i have with it, not that i bother playing games. Now if you intend on playing games as well as the 3d work then all you'll need with be a 256 graphics card. Some of the gamers i have talked to use 256 cards and have stated unless you play high games don't bother with 512 cards.

Thank you for the advices. I havent bought a graphics card in many years so Im a bit outdated on that subject.

Attached Link: http://www.ati.com/products/fireglv7350/index.html

Message edited on: 03/21/2006 12:29

Recently spent a lot of time researching V-cards....My old machine has the Radeon 9600pro 128, great card with Analog/DVI output. The new card is an ATI FireGL 7100 256 w/2 DVI. Haven't had any time to put it through the ringer yet. I picked that one due to performance & Cash considerations, & I dont do any heavy gaming. read-read-read.....Best way to choose in the end.

Do some research on www.tomshardware.com & www.extremetech.com The Geforce 6200 is a scaled down version of the 6600/6800. I think I read that the 7200? is going to go on retail any day now at around $100 or so. I have a 6600 which is a bit slower than a 6800. The 6800s are being replaced/phased out by the 7800s. Also, most decent games need 128mb, and are starting to use 256. However, only a few, high end games use 512 and only for their absolute best settings. I'm pretty sure that Bryce doesn't benefit much at all from a good video card, Bryce is constrained by the CPU. If you are running a 1.6ghz machine, which is well out of date, spending more than $100 or so on a video card is a waste of money because any game that might benefit from a higher end card will be limited by the slower CPU. As a side note, if you have a 1.6ghz machine then you no doubt have an AGP slot for the video card (or PCI). PCI's are obsolete and you won't find many decent video cards there anymore. AGP is quickly going obsolete in new systems (almost entirely except really low end/inexpensive). The AGP is still selling a lot of replacement cards because of the huge quantity of people with 1-3ghz machines at home. A number of vendors have managed to find ways to make the high end cards work in AGP, however, Nvidia & ATI are focusing most of their efforts in making their new chips work on PCI-Express (PCI-X?). Hence, spending $250+ on a high end AGP card a) won't help much for rendering now b) won't help you much on gaming since your 1.6ghz machine is CPU limited at that point c) when you do decide to build/buy a new machine in 6-12+ months (lets assume post January when MS Vista comes out), you will probably end up buying a dual core chip, probably 64bit, and it won't even support AGP, just PCI-e. Of course, this means you can't just yank your fancy new, less than 1 year old video card out of this box and put in the new one if you build it. My suggestion, buy the 6200 for $70-120. Or a 6600 or 6800. But don't spend a lot (you can price shop at www.pricewatch.com).

wad he say harry, wad he say..hmmmm