im thinking i need to upgrade the ATI AIW 128 Pro card im using now to something more current..i just ordered another 512 megs of memory so my system will max out at 1 gig, any reccomendations on what graphics card i should upgrade to? I see a lot of talk about cards for gaming, as far as the new ATI and Matrox cards, but not really anything about cards for graphics..i was checking out stuff from 3D Labs, ATIs FIREGL-X2, and the Matrox Parnhelia...all of which are a bit pricey...

The only advantage to a faster video card is that it will render the on screen area "preview" faster only. It dosen't make the actual render times better.

I'm a fan of NVidia. I just picked up their FX 5900 card with 128 MB. From the reviews I read this is supposed to be a real screamer. The advantage to Nvidia is that they have universal drivers so you don't have to worry that your card is no longer supported and you won't be able to find new drivers for it. That in and of itself is a hugh advantage.

The other advantage is when you have a lot of models on your screen and the system has to refresh that screen as you spin the camera, or play your animation. The graphics card can also help there. But, unfortunatly, it's true. A faster card does nothing for your final render. Other software apps have plugins and tie ins with graphic card manufacturares, (3DMax, Maya, Lightwave, etc...) that allow for hardware rendering. This allows for the graphics card to help. But... (sigh) not our beloved C. :< Maybe C4? :>

cool..thanks guys..the final render i can wait on..the 1 gig of memory has helped a lot..but it does till kind of get bogged down a bit when im moving the camera around...:)...thanks for all the advice...