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Zack Attack
05-27-2006, 04:38 AM
Im not sure if this is the right place to post this but heck i'll give it a try.
I have lightwave and every thing seems to be going fine, except when i load big or complcated models in both layout or modeler (mostly in modeler). I need to be able to work on more complicated projects ... so i was told i needed to get a better graphics card. I had a geforce mx but it never worked and i hear it sucks.....so my question is whats a good card to get??? i just want one that works good for like $300 or $400? it would be helpful if you tell me the ones that you guys own that would be great.

thanks for your time
BazC
05-27-2006, 08:32 AM
Well I doubt that a new card will help with modeler, yet anyway, the acceleration in modeler is ancient and in desperate need of an overhaul. It will be getting that overhaul sometime this year. OpenGL has been improved dramatically in Layout in version 9 though.
If I were you I'd upgrade to LW9 and see how OpenGL develops. You're guaranteed a big improvement in Layout and I'd bet you will see an even more dramatic improvement in modeler at a later date (free update). If you spend money on a new a new graphics card it MIGHT make very little difference!
telamon
05-27-2006, 12:47 PM
Definitely, you need a new card. The GeForce MX are 6 years old and were very low class cards. it is not necessary to spend 400 $. You'll find cheaper killer cards but they become slowly outdated.
biliousfrog
05-27-2006, 04:05 PM
yeah basically get the best card that you can afford. Any gamers card will be fine, I personally stick to nVidia cards but some prefer ATI's. The latest cards offer OpenGL 2.0 which is supported in Lightwave allowing multi-texturing, layers, procedurals, gradients, blending etc....it really slows things down but it's a nice feature if you don't have FPrime.

You tend to get what you pay for so although two seemingly identical cards might have a massive price difference, the cheap one will probably use cheaper components making it noisey & less stable. Check out some reviews first & shop around. I tend to stick with Gainward's golden sample cards as they're guarenteed to run at higher clock settings & include software to increase them...meaning that you can usually get a card that runs at an equivilent speed to a higher spec one but for less money.

Don't think that more memory means a better card, it just means that there's more memory available for textures to be displayed, 256mb should be plenty - I've got 128mb & have no problems at all. The important bit is the processor speed.
BazC
05-28-2006, 09:24 AM
Definitely, you need a new card. The GeForce MX are 6 years old and were very low class cards. it is not necessary to spend 400 $. You'll find cheaper killer cards but they become slowly outdated.

But aren't I right in saying that modeler doesn't currently use the GFX card?
telamon
05-28-2006, 11:34 AM
I don't know if it is psychologic but I have the feeling that I got more comfortable with huge objects when I switched from my old Radeon Card to my Quadro 4. Perhaps you are right.

Anyway, Zack Attack owns a very old low-class card which is unable to display Doom I with more than 3 FPS. If he wants to enter the 3D World and work comfortably, he'd need new hardware.
BazC
05-28-2006, 11:39 AM
Fair enough! :D
lightwolf
05-28-2006, 03:28 PM
But aren't I right in saying that modeler doesn't currently use the GFX card?
It does... just not effectively, so the speed boost is not as pronounced as could be.

I'd go for a mid-range nVidia board at around 200€/$ ... best price performance, unless you game. the nvidia 7600GT seems pretty nice, and you can get it passively cooled as well, which is great for a quiet workstation.

Cheers,
Mike
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