Low profile card for Second Life

[Insomniator]

Hey everyone I need to select a low profile card that will work for second life, a game that I assume has very low requirements. The machine is an optiplex 330... low end dual core, 1 gig.

Problem is that it looks like they only buy from cdwg.com, where the prices.. are ridiculous.

Would an 8400GS work? Seem to get conflicting results on google. Or how about a 2400PRO? Both are like.... 150 there.

I could just tell them to get a 4350 from newegg for 30 bucks but that may not fly. I'm sure they dont care about the money anyway, its a state job.

 

[TidusZ]

My mother's cpu has a 7600gt, she tried it out after seeing a documentary on it, and imo it runs pretty poorly on that card. My guess is around 15-20 fps. the processor is a 3800 X2 @2.5ghz, so I doubt that is slowing it down that much.

 

[Lifixs]

I have played it on an HD 4870, I see very little change in fps changing between max and min settings. The fps remain low regardless of what I do (15-20), but the game is playable at very low fps so its not an issue.

An 8400GS should work fine.

 

[Sam25]

Originally posted by: Lifixs
I have played it on an HD 4870, I see very little change in fps changing between max and min settings. The fps remain low regardless of what I do (15-20), but the game is playable at very low fps so its not an issue.

An 8400GS should work fine.

I agree, the 8400gs should be good enough.

 

[TheInternal]

Having been a Second Life volunteer mentor in the past, I'd have to say that SL still chugs the hell out of any card you throw at it. The problem is in the basic technology behind second life. Instead of loading the textures and content from your hard drive, like most games do, Second Life instead has to load them from the internet ._.
That being said, I've managed to fiddle with settings and some text editing to get Second Life to run on something as crappy as an integrated intel chip. If you get a dedicated 3d card that's 6 series (or better) from NVIDIA or an ATI 9500 pro or better, you should be able to run SL alright. I'm guessing they also have system suggestions on the second life website.
I personally run SL either on a 6800 Ultra with 256 MB of RAM, or on my 7950 GT with 512 MB of RAM. Sadly, Second Life gets no performance gain from SLI or Crossfire, last I checked. In fact, it may slow down if you have either enabled.

 

[Denithor]

Originally posted by: Insomniator
I'm sure they dont care about the money anyway, its a state job.

Hey, it's just taxpayer money, spend it!

Originally posted by: TheInternal
The problem is in the basic technology behind second life. Instead of loading the textures and content from your hard drive, like most games do, Second Life instead has to load them from the internet ._.

Ouch. So I'm guessing that anything you can do to optimize/accelerate your connection would be more beneficial than a high end GPU/CPU/etc.

 

[TheInternal]

Dear Mr. Duvall,

Thank you for interesting in PowerColor Products.

We will have HD4650 512MB low profile card (HD4650 512MD2-LH) available in US etailer by 2nd week of March.

Best Regards
Amy Chang
Customer Service
Powercolor

A low profile AMD HD 4650 coming soon to an etailer near you

To a certain extent, yes Denithor.

Having a mid to high end graphics card helps, but even the top end cards will feel relatively clunky compared to using the card for gaming.