Graphics Card

[AnOldUR]

I recently upgraded to V22 and am putting together a computer to use with it. I’ve read here that the graphic cards for gaming and CAD applications have different needs. My PC supports 8X AGP. What should I be looking for?

This information is probably here somewhere, but I'm wasting too much time sifting through the posts. I hope someone can give a simple answer.

Thanks

[ger21]

Originally Posted by AnOldUR My PC supports 8X AGP. What should I be looking for?

A newer PC. Seriously. Something with PCI Express. And for the video card, an nVidia Quadro series card.

[DareBee]

I have a couple of Oxygen VX1 cards you can have for $10 each.

[ger21]

Originally Posted by DareBee I have a couple of Oxygen VX1 cards you can have for $10 each.

I threw one of those away 2 years ago because it wasn't worth $10. But, the PC on the desk behind me has one in it, and it still runs 2D CAD programs great. But not nearly enough power for 3D work.

[DareBee]

1 of these was still in operation running SW 06

all 32 Mb

They are almost antiques, price has to go up.

[tobyaxis]

ATI FireGL has an entry level graphic card.
V3350 has 256MB

Catalyst Magazine rates Graphics Cards all the time. They rate ATI for High End and Nvidia for Low to Midrange applications. They still haven't provided concrete proof of this but they are both good cards that come with all the necessary adapters.

The Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT on my new Dell Inspiron 1520 Lap Top is wicked fast and looks great on the CAD Screen.

Hard choices out there but it would be wise to stick with cards that are supported by the software your running. Just to avoid problems.

http://ati.amd.com/products/fireglv3350/index.html
http://www.nvidia.com/object/geforce_8600M.html

Cheers!!!!!!!

[DareBee]

Hey Toby - Don't make me kick your *^* - Quadro all the way man

[ger21]

Yeah, ATI's OpenGL drivers have always sucked.

[AnOldUR]

tobyaxis wrote:

Hard choices out there but it would be wise to stick with cards that are supported by the software your running. Just to avoid problems.

Toby

Thanks for the serious reply. All that the BobCAD site reccomends is a 512MB card that supports OpenGL 1.1. I just ordered a Diamond Viper ATI X1650PRO AGP with 512MB. It supports DirectX 9.0 and OpenGL 2.0.

Think it will do the job?

Thanks

[DareBee]

That should do the job quite well

[DonW]

I have a MacBook Pro, with a GeForce 8600M GT card, with 128MB of VRAM. Are there any issues with this for using BCCV22? If not enough VRAM, is there a way to add more VRAM to the video card, or is it locked into a set configuration? Anyone? Toby?
...Oh, and I'm running XP Pro as an OS on this.
Thanks...

[AnOldUR]

DonW

The system that I'm upgrading from is an old PC that I put together years ago. It has a 1.2ghz Celeron and a 128mb video card. I'm still using it while waiting for the upgrades to my new system. It has run v21 with no problems and v22 works ok also. The graphics card works, but the processing speed when calculating large surfaces is really slow.

Don’t know mac’s so can’t help you there, but I don’t think that you can just upgrade video memory. You’d have to replace the video card if it’s not built into the motherboard. Hope one of the experts here will chime in.