I'm in the process of buying a new computer any recommendations for graphics cards ? ATI Radeon or Nvidia Geoforce?
Mick
Your choice of graphics card is not likely to have a significant impact on your use of Terragen 2. We use only basic OpenGL functions to display the 3D preview and parts of the general user interface. Any modern graphics card with an up-to-date driver is going to support the required capabilities. We do not take significant advantage of 3D acceleration features at this time and it's unlikely that a graphics card will have any noticeable impact on actual render performance in the near future either so you're better of focusing money on a fast CPU and a good amount of RAM if render time is a concern. Since TG2 will ultimately be multithreaded you would do well to get a multi-core CPU.
Both Nvidia and ATI are on a pretty level field now that ATI has just introduced their DirectX 10 capable cards. I think Nvidia has the cost edge simply because the 8x00 series has been out longer and has thus been subject to decreasing costs as a result of economies of scale. ATI seems to be trying to get close in price but they just can't yet for equivalent performance. If you'll be gaming perhaps the question is more difficult, but otherwise I'd suggest getting something like a Geforce 8600 series - it's reasonably capable and not too expensive. Put the money you save into your CPU and RAM.
- Oshyan
Good advice ;D
Thanks
Mick
oshyan... multiprocesor means even 4 cores?. I would considerate the Core 2 Quad 6700. They are lowering its price to 266 dollars and it would be nice to have 4 times the power.
really? might have to look into that.
regards,
Will
I would think Core 2 Quad would be screaming.
Yes, the multithreading support should take advantage of 4 cores.
- Oshyan
damn thx for answer oshyan.... the bad thing now is im even more confused about the processor i should get :D
The more cores the better, although you'd be wise to raise your RAM along with it.
TBH you shouldn't go above quad-core atm if you're planning to use your computer for heavy gaming, as you'd actually get better preformance from a dual-core (for the price) since most games are only sloppily optimised for quad at the moment, and the dual cores have higher clock speeds (per core). For Terragen though, quad-core optimisation will be better, particularly if you want to have photoshop or other CPU intensive programs open at the same time at a decent lick of speed. For RAM, I'd recommend 4 gig of the good stuff. Grahpics cards are useless for terragen, so don't bother going with anything expensive, the geforce 6 series will do you fine for that. Obviously if you're gaming you'll want 2x Geforce 8800 or something similar (seriously, I've got one Geforce 8800 and I get lag on Dx10 games, gone are the days when one of the latest graphics cards could handle max settings for years to come), just make sure you can cool it all down nicely.
I hope that helps. If it doesn't, then tough ;p.