PDA

View Full Version : New video card: how about ATI drivers nowadays?

Erik Heyninck
04-07-2008, 01:12 PM
I'm gathering information to upgrade my computer (P IV, 3GHz, AGP 128MB graphics card, XPPro 32bit) and the main question remains the graphics card.
I did a search, but the latest thread is about a year old; so many things have changed.

The main thing is impeccable eOGL.

I heard good things about the ATI 3650, which comes at an affordable price, but I remember that ATI drivers were troublesome.
Otoh, I remember problems with the NVIDIA 8800 drivers also.

Does anyone have some practical information for me? Real life experience?
I don't think I'll go higher than the 3650 or evt. and 8600 as I don't run two monitors.

thanks
imashination
04-07-2008, 09:01 PM
Save your money for a whole new system is the best thing I would say. Even a cheap dual machine will be a good 4x faster than what you have.
Erik Heyninck
04-07-2008, 09:29 PM
Thanks Matthew.
I intend to. I will keep the box, power supply and XPPro, but CPU, Mainboard and ram will be replaced by a quadcore (6600 or 9550, depends) , Asus P5K3 Deluxe and 2x Corsair 1024MB DDR2 6400C (4-4-4-12).

It's the graphics cards I can't decide upon.

-ATI or NVIDIA? Depends on the drivers. I don't need the latest and fastest one, but I want good eogl support. I never game.
-256 or 512? I guess 256 is enough for me as I don't do movies and am not blazingly fast.
-Noise? A very important factor, which leads me to the Asus EN8600GT Silent.
imashination
04-08-2008, 01:02 PM
Thanks Matthew.
I intend to. I will keep the box, power supply and XPPro, but CPU, Mainboard and ram will be replaced by a quadcore (6600 or 9550, depends) , Asus P5K3 Deluxe and 2x Corsair 1024MB DDR2 6400C (4-4-4-12).

It's the graphics cards I can't decide upon.

-ATI or NVIDIA? Depends on the drivers. I don't need the latest and fastest one, but I want good eogl support. I never game.
-256 or 512? I guess 256 is enough for me as I don't do movies and am not blazingly fast.
-Noise? A very important factor, which leads me to the Asus EN8600GT Silent.

Which power supply do you have? youll need around 450 watts as a starting point

The 8800 gts from nvidia is a good bet, current drivers are stable and work fine. 256 vs 512 megs makes no real difference in c4d
Erik Heyninck
04-08-2008, 01:52 PM
I have a Zalman 500watts.

Your opinion is much appreciated.
Then it'll be the 8800gts 256MB (or 512 as 256 is more difficult to find)
with NGO drivers.

Thanks!
Navstar
04-08-2008, 03:05 PM
Anyone doing 3D today with a single core/cpu machine is severely behind the times. Even the cheapest Core 2 Duo would double your rendering speed.
Erik Heyninck
04-08-2008, 06:35 PM
True.
But people did the most marvellous things with computers that weren't as powerful as the one I have now. It will certainly be a huge step ahead, and that is exciting. But it won't make me any better. Unfortunately.
Xtrude
04-08-2008, 06:49 PM
Wow... and here I felt like a king as I just upgraded to a p4 2.6ghz with 1gig ram and my trusty ole ATI 9200... lol


Go Eric go :D
CGTalk Moderation
04-08-2008, 06:49 PM
This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.