Minimum Graphics Card RAM Requierments for TG2

Started by Cyber-Angel, December 31, 2007, 08:06:59 PM

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Cyber-Angel

I am planning on buying a new graphics card in the next few weeks and would like to know what the minimum recommended on card RAM requirement is for TG2 to have enough overhead for smooth operation of the software for tasks like rendering and so forth?

Regards to you.

Cyber-Angel   

rcallicotte

@CA - Without venturing into Planetside's support, I remember something about the video card not being a complete show stopper.  Get a good one with 256M and a newer one and I'll bet it will be enough.  But, I'd wait to hear from Oshyan or someone else at Planetside.

System RAM and the CPU are where you need the potential.
So this is Disney World.  Can we live here?

old_blaggard

Graphics cards are not important for TG2.  Any modern graphics card will do you in good stead unless you get node networks with hundreds of nodes (drawing the node network is the only thing TG2 uses the graphics card for).
http://www.terragen.org - A great Terragen resource with models, contests, galleries, and forums.

matrix2003

Well I was just researching video cards and resolutions.  Not for terragen though.  I am looking for one to talk to my new wiz-bang LCD flat screen.  If your PC is integrated with home a entertainment center (or just want to see terragen or photoshop on a big screen)  you want to make sure that it outputs in HD format,  which is a resolution of 1920 X 1080.  I don't think that a crazy high-end card will be any benefit for rendering as I believe that is processor intensive.  BUT -I'm no expert there!

For more info on non-terragen specs on display resolutions read this Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Display_resolution
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-MATRIX2003-      ·DHV·  ....·´¯`*
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Oshyan

Any modern graphics card will be fine. Just make sure you have the latest drivers.

- Oshyan

zionner

OH I'm soo excited about this


I'm getting a New 512 MB Graphics Card tomorrow!


I didnt realise the graphics card made a diffrence, as I remember someone saying the Graphics card didnt matter because TG 2 used CPU for the rendering..

I may be wrong though

rcallicotte

@zionner - Reading just this thread, notice:

"Graphics cards are not important for TG2." - old_blaggard

"System RAM and the CPU are where you need the potential." - me

"Any modern graphics card will be fine. Just make sure you have the latest drivers." - Oshyan

Hello, dude.  What could you be wrong about?  Another search on CPU or RAM or system memory would give you plenty of information along these same lines.  The Objects use up System RAM and complex nodes use up CPU...for simplicity's sake.
So this is Disney World.  Can we live here?

zionner

No..

Ok, I didnt meant to put it like that...In fact..I completly screwed up that post...Let me start again lol

I remember once seeing: High End graphics Cards arent needed for TG 2, as the CPU and RAM takes care of it, but High end graphics Cards DO help...

In what way dose it help....because (as mentioned below) my new graphicsc card is arriving tomorrow.


Yeah, uuh...I know thats ^^ completely diffrent from my last post..but..it kind of makes for sense towards what I was wanting to say lol

old_blaggard

From my experience, graphics cards will help with drawing the node network - if you are dealing with a project composed of several hundred nodes, a good graphics card will speed up the navigation and response of the network.  That's all.
http://www.terragen.org - A great Terragen resource with models, contests, galleries, and forums.

zionner


rcallicotte

Thanks, o_b.  That's good to know...and I think I read this in another post.

Thanks for bringing this up, zionner. 

Quote from: old_blaggard on January 02, 2008, 04:07:36 PM
From my experience, graphics cards will help with drawing the node network - if you are dealing with a project composed of several hundred nodes, a good graphics card will speed up the navigation and response of the network.  That's all.
So this is Disney World.  Can we live here?

Oshyan

TG2 does not use the graphics card for primary rendering in any way. Rendering speed is dependent almost entirely on the CPU speed.

I haven't personally observed node network speed being dependent on graphics card capability, but it's quite possible. I'll try to do some more benchmarking on that to verify.

- Oshyan

rcallicotte

Since the card and the RAM probably share some manner of the same work during processing, I'd think there might be some help with a good video card.  Please let us know what's true, Oshyan.

So this is Disney World.  Can we live here?

Oshyan

Quote from: calico on January 03, 2008, 09:54:11 AM
Since the card and the RAM probably share some manner of the same work during processing, I'd think there might be some help with a good video card.  Please let us know what's true, Oshyan.

I don't really understand what you mean. The graphics card and RAM (assuming you mean main system RAM) do very different tasks. A graphics card computes and processes graphical effects to create visual output - it is fairly specific in its function. RAM is a much more general storage system for high-speed access. It differs from the hard drive, your primary storage, really in only 2 ways, one of which is just a byproduct of current technology. First, RAM is much faster than a hard drive - this is the main reason it even exists separate from primary storage. Second it is volatile, meaning you must constantly supply power to it or the data will disappear. If we could create higher-speed non-volatile storage we probably would. In an ideal world all storage could be unified, but our current technology doesn't allow that.

Some graphics cards *use* main system RAM as part of their operation, but this takes *away* available memory from the system. So they're not at all performing similar functions.

TG2 uses RAM like any other program to store its working data. Because TG2 works on very complex graphics tasks its memory usage can be quite high. TG2 does not use graphics card functions for rendering and so a faster graphics card doesn't have any impact on render time. Other areas of TG2, basically the User Interface, do use *basic* graphics card functions and so they may be faster with a better graphics card, but in most cases you're unlikely to notice. The 3D preview depends on the same rendering system as the main renderer so it will *not* be made faster with a better graphics card.

- Oshyan

Cyber-Angel

My intent for this post was to ask about how much on board Memory (Ram on the Graphics Card its self) was required to give good program overhead when TG2 is running which is a separate entity from main system RAM so I can multi-task and not have any slow down of the system, that was my intent?

Thank you for your assistance in this regard.

Regards to you.

Cyber-Angel  ;D