My old ATI Radeon AX3450 graphics card does not appear to have any updated drivers and is not supported by ATI anymore, if ever, I think my Poser problems may be graphics card related. Vue also tells me that my drivers are obsolete. It was a cheap card that came with my system but it used to work until I had to reinstall everything after a virus. I may have had newer drivers than on the disk that comes with the system, but I can't find them anymore. What should I buy that is not too expensive? Thanks

I have a PCIEx16 Nvidia GeForce 9500GT, one gig. Cost me about 70 bucks. I'm happy with it ;o).

Laurie

They still sell cards with the AX3450 chipset, but ATI's driver search is useless.  Try downloading the legacy Catalyst drivers and see if they work.  I use them for the old (three years!) card in my notebook which works well with Poser-here is the link for XP.

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Legacy/Pages/radeonaiw_xp.aspx

If you are going to replace it, get an nVidia based card...

I have an Nvidia 6200 that was a gift. It works great with Poser. I dont think they are expensive now if you shop around.  I was somewhat limited because I needed an AGP slot card.

I recommend the Nvidia GTX 260 for just under $200. It's a little on the expensive side, but for the price a good card. I think it's the lowest priced Nvidia card that supports the latest OpenGL. Steer away from ATI. ATI and Poser don't get along well.

I was checking out the 1gb cards, but they all have a power supply requirement my lil baby Dell doesn't meet.

Did Poser 8 do anything that takes advantage of graphics cards? The graphics card only gets used in the preview window, not in rendering.

I just bought this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814141114
for my pc.   I had to go into setup to fix where it wanted to route audio and boot device but so far so good. 

Thanks!

Silly question. Don't you have to use the card the Motherboard was made to use. ATI card now, don't you need to replace with ATI card? Now I know the newer Intel CPU boards can be both but I'm not seeing it with old boards.

So my point is. Why offer Nvidia options for an ATI board. Unless I have that wrong and that only has to do with using SLI and Crossfire.

Graphic cards are cheep now days for a good jump in upgrade. $50 bucks can get a much bigger card than you already have with supported drivers.

I use a Nvidia GTX 260 core 216 and happy with it. But that seems a bit big for what you need and may not even fit in your system. That's something else to think about. Will the card fit in your case. Higher end cards may not be what you want either. Lets not forget Power Supply. Can your PSU handle a bigger card.

The last question would be. Is it worth it to put money into a new card without upgrading your system first.

Been there, done it and still doing it right this minute with one of my other computers.

Quote - Silly question. Don't you have to use the card the Motherboard was made to use. ATI card now, don't you need to replace with ATI card?

What????

You can use any graphics card you want - ATI, Nvidia or something else. It's been that way for, oh, I don't know - years???.

Laurie

The chipset maker doesn't matter to the motherboard.  Just make sure you buy one that fits the slot in the Motherboard...

There you go. I thought you needed to use the card for the board. Now your going to say you can use an SLI setup on an ATI board and a Crossfire set up on a Nvidia board. And a Nvidia GPU on an ATI hybrid board and vise versa.

I had thought it was boards that didn't have specific graphic chips that could use both.

Learn something every day.
Funny how all the companies I talk to about a new DDR3 AMD board to go with my Nvidia for cuda was going to pick up the T1090 six core, never bothered to tell me that I could us thier ATI boards. They keep refering me to NVida boards which there are only a couple of. And they are old rehashed chips.

My computer has a graphics chip on the board - Intel graphics chip - which I hate. So I dropped in the Nvidia card into the PCIe slot and disabled the one on the board. Easy peasy lemon squeezy ;o)...lol.

Laurie

Intel chip is not ATI or Nvidia. So wouldn't it go in the class as non specific chip set. Your telling us you can use either SLI or Crossfire with yours?

I did say in my first post that many of the new boards for Intel CPU's are both but not AMD's. Which I find strange except that AMD owns ATI.

Quote - The chipset maker doesn't matter to the motherboard.  Just make sure you buy one that fits the slot in the Motherboard...

As I said earlier. Better make sure it fits your case too. I see that problem on forums all the time. Someone buys a new card and they can't install it because it's to big.

**Tashar59, all motherboards with PCI-E slots (or agp if your going way back) can take any graphics card be it Nvidia or ATI...  when you start talking about SLI or Crossfire then it does start to get motherboard specific... some motherboards have Crossfire compatibilty, some dont. Some boards have SLI compatiblity, some dont. Some motherboards can support both techs....   Its only if your going to have 2 GFX cards then you have to start looking at your motherboard specs.

Anyways 2 cards are pointless, usually you never get the full power out of the second card, and its always better to have a single more powerfull card than 2 cheaper ones (unless you can find the 2 cheaper cards for a real steal !)

I hope this clears up any confusion you have ;)
**

Dont forget, graphic card dont help for rendering ( it's the CPU work) , only preview mode ...

Poser makes zero use of SLI or crossfire so don't ever get that, even if the second card is free. You'll get no performance benefit and only increase your power bill.

As for ATI/nVIDIA, get whatever you want but stick with the 'winner' series in each case. Which means nVIDIA - 2xx, 8xxx series and ATI 5xxx series. Everything else sucks and is not worth the money you spend on it, even if the price is low.

Quote - Intel chip is not ATI or Nvidia. So wouldn't it go in the class as non specific chip set. Your telling us you can use either SLI or Crossfire with yours?

I did say in my first post that many of the new boards for Intel CPU's are both but not AMD's. Which I find strange except that AMD owns ATI.

I'm not using more than one graphic's card....sigh.

Laurie

and to the point the original poster said " What should I buy that is not too expensive? Thanks"

Quote - > Quote - The chipset maker doesn't matter to the motherboard.  Just make sure you buy one that fits the slot in the Motherboard...

As I said earlier. Better make sure it fits your case too. I see that problem on forums all the time. Someone buys a new card and they can't install it because it's to big.

This is true.  After I installed mine the computer began shutting off when trying to boot.  While it fit the case it was thicker than the old one and I noticed it was running hot.  The tv tuner (whatever you call it) card below was obviously affecting the fan so I had to move it down a slot.  Once I did that and let it cool down it's worked great.  

To those who keep stressing that Poser doesn't need/use the graphics card...

Poser does use it for OpenGL previews. I doesn't need to, obviously - you can always use Sreed, but a computer needs a graphics card for other things besides Poser. I know, it's hard to believe, ain't it? LOL.

Laurie

I know that some cards will provide better textures in the Preview window, but I'm not sure it that 's a function of the amount of video RAM or the chipset, or both.

My notebook has a blistering 64 MB.....

For those who dont know read, the question is "a graphic card for poser" an no "a new graphic card for my games" ;)

Quote - For those who dont know read, the question is "a graphic card for poser" an no "a new graphic card for my games" ;)

Read again...

The OP stated that they thought their card was the reason for "their problems with Poser" and they also mentioned Vue was giving them grief as well. Vue definitely needs decent video.

Laurie

Vue 7 Pioneer was fine on my old laptop with a Mobility Radeon although I didn't do much more than play with it....

I had a brainstorm. I knew before the virus that that my graphics card drviers had been updated, because everything worked before. However, the drivers were no longer available. So I looked on my old hard drive and found the newer ATI driver and transferred it to the new drive. I ran it and now everything works. Needless to say, I saved those drivers!!

Yay! :o)

Laurie

Yay is right. I was going insane. Two weeks without a PC and then no Poser. THanks all!

Quote - **Tashar59, all motherboards with PCI-E slots (or agp if your going way back) can take any graphics card be it Nvidia or ATI...  when you start talking about SLI or Crossfire then it does start to get motherboard specific... some motherboards have Crossfire compatibilty, some dont. Some boards have SLI compatiblity, some dont. Some motherboards can support both techs....   Its only if your going to have 2 GFX cards then you have to start looking at your motherboard specs.

Anyways 2 cards are pointless, usually you never get the full power out of the second card, and its always better to have a single more powerfull card than 2 cheaper ones (unless you can find the 2 cheaper cards for a real steal !)

I hope this clears up any confusion you have ;)
**

Just to point out. it was the single card I was not sure about and why I asked. The rest I was just being sarcastic as my single card question was legit and was replied sarcastically. I spent most of my time worring/ researching about SLI/Crossfire boards and Cuda/ Nvidia. My main computers are more work stations and I would go to those cards if they didn't cost an arm or a leg or make you sell your kids for scientific experiments. OK so the last one is reasonable consideration. The new Fermi cards are giving the best of both worlds now at a bit cheeper price than the workstation cards.

As for the second card in SLI or Crossfire being weaker. I don't think that is as true with todays boards. They can be X16 in dual and even tri now, depending on the board. It is true that the extra cards don't increase ram or card speed. They stay the same as the first card. I do find a difference in perfomance on my old Hybrid board when I devoted the on board chipset to physics.

Depends on what software you use. As already mentioned. Not everyone uses only poser. Vue likes bigger ram cards. Many of my software started to slow down when moving in the work space. My 8500GT 1Gb just didn't cut it anymore. OpenGL worked fine, just all the movement stuttering was a pain including Poser. My GTX 260 cleared that all up but has less ram and Vue noticed that. Movement is fast but It seems I get less shaded objects or maybe I expected more. But all my other software flies.

OK, long winded way to say it was only the single card thing I was not sure of as I have always had expansion in mind when I build.

My PC is four years old. I really need a new one, but alas, no money. It's a dual processor running XP 32 bit and I am feeling the pain.