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Poser - OFFICIAL F.A.Q (Last Updated: 2025 Jan 20 11:41 am)
Subject: Used Hair room and never had a crash? What graphic card?
I had a nvidia geforce 4 mx on motherboard that worked well, and I now have a nvidia geforce 6200 which does Opengl 2. I have never had a crash due to the graphics card that I know of . The nvidia to me seem easier to install than the ATI cards .
The most recent driver is not always the most stable.
I would go for a dual core processor, 80GB or bigger disk , 2 - 3 GB memory and nvidia graphics card if I was getting a new machine. 64 bit processor aand Operating system if it fits your budget to be ready for the future. I would add a dvd burner for backup.
Forget dual core.. quad core is the minimum you want now, Tiny. You can get a good quad core system with a new video card, 8 gb of memory, and 750 gb hd space for about $900 total.
(I just upgraded myself to this configuration.)
PM or email me for details
Videocard wise, I use tom's hardware guide, because they have price tiers, with the best card chocies by price. Under $200, they list a ati card, and over $200, they list both a ati card and a nvidia card. I've got the under $200 card, and it rocks seriously, and I haven't seen any opengl issues with it at all.
Way too many people take way too many things way too seriously.
Quote - The most recent driver is not always the most stable.
So true. When I updated the driver for my Radeon x600 everything became a mess. On top of that I got very bad support at ATI blaming everything on the screen.
A quad core, 4-8 Gb ram, 64bit is what we are aiming for and probably with a Nvidia card.
Gareee, is your quad an Intel and do you prefer ATI cards?
What I'm worried about is ending up with a new setup and still getting "hair styling crashes". I only get the crashes when using the styling tool for dynamic hair and it is very annoying. Have tested brutaly on my hubby's laptop with no crashes.
Yeah i went with an intel q6600, because spec wise, it renders fastert then comparable amd processors.
Video card wise I really have no brand preference at all.. both nvidia and ati both have issues from time to time. I usually shop around some, check tom's hardware guide (every month they rate the bets value cards in price ranges) and after checking all that, I get the most bang for the buck. It just happens my last 3 cards were all ati based.
Note I say "based".. ati (the official brand) has only a 1 year warranty.. weith newer systems heat buildup and dust are very big issues and I fried a card last year. For ati card, get the Visiontek brand.. they weither have a 5 year warranty or a lifetime warranty.
Here's the link to the best buy system I just picked up:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9032316&type=product&id=1218010533213
To that I added on ati hd8450 old video card from my old system, (Tom's hardware guide best video card buy under $200 for about 10 months), I increaded the memory from 6gb to 8gb with kingston 4 gb x 2gb sticks (about $34 shipped), incresed the power supply to 550 watts (about $70 shipped), and then tossed in one second hd from my old system, to add an additional 500 gig of storage. Last thing I added was a usb hub off the back, because I have too damned many usb things, and I prefer them on the back instaed of on the front of my system. (You can snag those for about $15 at walmart.)
If you had to buy everything I added, the total for everything would be around $850 or so I think.
I've been very pleased with the performance increase and general use on this new system. I'm still installing software on it as well, since I picked it up a few weeks ago.
I'm running vue 7 I, poser pro, lightwave 9.5/.6, zbrush, photoshop cs, and a number of other things and all are running great!
(I do prefer my old mouse and keyboard though...I may swap them back in, but I am getting used to the new stuff more and more as time goes by.)
The reason I went with best buy, was the store was local, and it was actually cheaper with tax, then from newegg of tiger direct when you include thier shipping costs.
Here's the link to all the best buy gateway systems...
Way too many people take way too many things way too seriously.
Thanks a bunch guys for sharing the info! I feel more confident now of what to get.
Picking stuff up at Walmart would be quite costly though .... flight from northern Sweden and such... :lol:
We will check the local stores too both Sweden and Finland since we are on the border. When bringing a list of stuff and comparing prices they usually are quite nice offering good deals. I'd like to hear the sound level too since I'm sooooo tired of noisy boxes. I even have the rendering machine in the closet because I can't stand the noise.
See if there are any larger electronic stores there that carry gateway.. you have the model numbers now. ;)
As far as noisy, I actually increase the noise from my system buy turning up the fan speed on the video card to 70%.
I'd much prefer my system be a little noisier, then have it overheating, and have to buy another new video card.. LOL!
We have two cats, and in the last year or so, I've found dust and cat hair a huge issue.
Way too many people take way too many things way too seriously.
After looking at your links I must say Sweden seem a bit behind when it comes to 64 bit setups. They get quite expensive. The lowest priced (and less attractive for me) ends up at $1400. I'll do some more checking and for the Gateway as you suggested. Haven't ever seen any around though.
Off to read a night story for my grand child via Skype. 
I have an NVidia 8800GTX and it has been very stable. I've never had a crash in the hair room, although I've never made any presentable hair there :biggrin:
Besides Poser Pro, Poser 7 will also take advantage of a quad core processor.
IMHO There's really no point in getting a 64 bit processor unless the motherboard can take more than 4GB of memory, and if it can - given the current price of memory - you should get as much as possible now. Technology changes so quickly that there is no guarantee that a few months from now you'll be able to find DDR2 memory for the motherboard. And if you do, it might be rare and expensive.
i7 will work just fine, but they cost an arm and a leg. Their performance is somewhat better than the Q6600, but not all that much - price/performance ratio of the Q6600 is significantly better.
A decent computer shop will build a machine to spec. And it's not all that difficult to do it yourself, anyone who can tell the business end of a screwdriver can build a PC nowadays.
When shopping for a graphics card, be sure to check for heat! ATIs newest high end consumer cards offer a great performance at a modest price - much better price/performance ratio than the nVidia GX260/GX280 - but they run extremely hot.
They are designed to run hot, so you shouldn't have any problem with the graphics card itself. Unfortunately, the card generates heat very close to the southbridge chip, which tends to get pretty hot all by itself too! Especially nVidia southbridge chips are hotheads.
In a tower case setup, the hot air is getting trapped under the graphics card. So, if you combine an ATI HD4850/5870 with an nVidia based mainboard in a tower case, chances are that you'll blow out your southbridge in a couple of weeks!
Intel southbridge chips generate far less heat than nVidia chips. I strongly advise going for an Intel based mainboard.
At this time, my preference would be a Gigabyte EP43-DS3L mainboard - pretty affordable, very reliable, a no-nonsense mainboard. According to the shop I frequent, Gigabyte boards are currently the most trouble-free mainboards. Asus used to be very good in the Pentium-1 days, a couple of years ago they were definitely NOT good, now they're better, but still not as trouble-free as Gigabyte. MSI also used to be good in the past, but at this time, the percentage of mainboards that malfunction is just too high. Abit is OK, but not as good as Gigabyte.
The pen is mightier than the sword. But if you literally want to have some impact, use a typewriter
I appreciate so much all of you giving advice in this dilemma. Love you guys!
I have finally found a machine with a decent price but am not sure if it is ok. Here are the specs:
Intel Core 2 Duo
E8500, 3.16Ghz, 1333Mhz, 6MB Cache
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P
Ram: 4GB
Type of memory: 2 x 2GB A-Data DDR2 800Mhz, PC-6400
Memory slots: 4 + 2 available
Drive: 640GB Western Digital Caviar SE, 16MB Cache (S-ATA II, 7200rpm)
Graphic card: LeadTek GeForce 9800GT, 512MB
Optical: Samsung 22X DVD±RW DL, S-ATA
Audio: 7.1 Realtek ALC889A
Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit
Power: 450W Corsair CMPSU-450VXEU
Approx. US$ 1275
You want a core 2 quad,, not a core 2 duo. (One has 2 core porcessors, one has 4.)
I'm pretty sure that video card is older junk you'll toss as well, and replace with a good one.
Also,m the power supply is insufficient for today's needs. You want no less then a 500 watt psu. Anything between 500 and 650 is good for any use other then running two videocards.
That system is slower then the Best Buy system I liked you to.
Use it's specs as something to shoot for on the main componants.
That system is about $600 more then you should have to spend, with less rendering speed.
Way too many people take way too many things way too seriously.
The 9800GT isn't that old - the 9xxx series is the one before the GX260/280. It's DirectX 10.1 compatible. As of this date.
The current nVidia situation at the high end:
GX280>GX260>9800GX2>9800GTX>9800GT. So that 9800GT ranks fifth from the top in nVidias current lineup - which consists of 20 or so models, excluding the onboard varieties.
Four nVidia cards are faster than the 9800GT. So are four ATI cards: the 4870X2, 4850X2, 4870 and 4850 (and I'm not too sure about the latter).
I'd advise to keep that 9800GT. It's new enough to support the latest in DirectX and OpenGL, it's new enough to be pretty fast, and it's old enough to have its kinks worked out and have stable drivers.
The mainboard looks good. And Gareee is completely right about the quad core - a Q6600 is only $20 or so more expensive than the CPU you mention, and for 3D work it's a far, far better performer.
The pen is mightier than the sword. But if you literally want to have some impact, use a typewriter
Want to say a big thank you to all of you advising me on this! It was a good help.
I have my new computer and have installed some of my programs. Thought I would dislike Vista (hubby's Vista is painfully slow and messy) but it is behaving very well.
I'm not going to ask if you want the specs, I'll just force them on you. :biggrin:
Intel Quad Q8200 2,33 Ghz
8 Gb ram
GeForce 9400 GT
Samsung 500 Gb HD
Vista 64 bit Home Premium
Again, thanks guys & gals!
/me sends big hug to the guys & gals
Quote - Make sure you work your way through this list for vista nirvana!
Sorry I didn't respond earlier. I've been in an euphoric state after I've at last found my "whole-life-lost" father!
Anyhow, thanks Gareee for the very useful link. 
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I'm about to get me a new computer but need to know what graphic card to get.
I'm having crashes in Hair room (with both SreeD and openGL) which apparently is due to my graphic card. I'd like to know if any of you that have used the hair room a bit or a lot and have had no crashes when styling hair could tell me what graphic card you have. I could use info on computer specs too.
Any advice on setup for a new computer would be much appreciated.