i've got a great deal on an hp nt work station with an hp visualize x class video card.... whatever the hell that is. Can anybody give me a shake or nod on whether this video card is up to the task? I already run a p3450 with 356mb ram and a diamond viper 770 card... it was a high end system, three years ago and the card is looking a little ragged..so what i'm asking in a nutshell is do I buy the nt workstation and cable the two together and make the old machine my render farm or do i take the cash and buy a high end video card and hunt around for an upgraded p3 processor?

from what little I know of Bryce, the video card isn't nearly as important as the processor, where all the real work happens. Stay tuned for more answers, but I think you'd go for processing power, and maybe memory a close second.

If you're looking to improve your rendering speed then a new system next to your current one will be the best solution. Upgrading your old system with a new faster processor would also speed up rendering, and would probably be cheaper, but a 2nd new system next to your old one will be faster. The vid-card is not really important to bryce. I'm still using a Voodoo Banshee PCI vid-card next to my AthlonXP 1800+. It's the processor that does the rendering calculations.