Video Cards

[Thom]

I know this has be asked before, but what are the best video cards for a PC.

thks

[RobertHarrington]

I'm searching around this message

board and hoping to find an answer

to EXACTLY that question. Let's

hope someone knowledgeable drops us

a reply !!

[Thom]

My own research tells me that probably a Ge Force 4 Ti 4200, 128 meg is the best card for the money without going to a card 4-5 times the cost. Radeon 9500 Pro would also be good if they keep up on driver updates and support.

[Guest]

Here is information about ones that have slight problems with anything after VW 9.5.1 ::

NVIDIA GeForce series including GeForceDDR, GeForce2, Geforce3, GeForce256 for Windows desktop PC :::

some small problems for GeForceDDR chip type specifically

1) The horizontal and vertical rulers disappear during interactive rendering.

2) If the rendering model is retained, when leave the document window or switch to a different render mode, there might be a small unusual slow down for a couple seconds

--------------------

NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 ::::

Win NT, 2k, xp

Good and stable, but be sure to get updated with the latest driver because with the early version of drivers, sometimes OpenGL rendering would crash.

Workaround for crash: locate the file called NVOGLNT.DLL under system32 directory, move it away from there.

Trade off: : Doing so MIGHT disable OpenGL interactive rendering.

Win 98/95

horizontal and vertical rulers disappear during interactive rendering.

-------------

NVIDIA RIVA TNT

Viper 550, etc

Unstable with early version of driver, crashes often with OpenGL rendering.

Workaround: locate the file called NV4.DLL under system32 directory, and move it away from there before running VectorWorks.

Trade off: : Doing so might disable OpenGL interactive rendering.

---------------

3dfx Voodoo3

Voodoo3

The default driver that comes with the card is very unstable, it either crashes or causes weird rendering problems.

Workaround: find the file called 3DFXOGL.DLL under system32 directory, and move it away before running VectorWorks.

------------

ATI Rage 128, 128 Pro, Rage Turbo Pro.

ATI Rage 128 or Rage Turbo Pro

PCI or AGP board

ATI Rage Turbo Pro is the older version of ATI card but it behaves well on Windows 2000.

But Rage 128 or Rage 128 Pro are sometimes unstable. VectorWorks might crash if the rendering model is retained by OpenGL.

Workaround:

Upgrade to the latest driver from ATI?s web site, and if the crash still occurs, do the following:

1) Go to VectorWorks Preference from File menu. Select 3D pane. Slide the ruler of "Retain Rendering Model" all the way to Never. Or,

2) Locate the file called ATIO2KAA.DLL in system directory, and move it away before launching VectorWorks.

However, unfortunately, this file could be called the different name on other platforms.

Trade off: : Choosing either way might disable OpenGL interactive rendering

----------------

ATI Radeon

ATI Radeon

PCI or AGP board

Unstable. Latest information about ATI Radeon card indicates that VecotorWorks may crash when using Edit Mapping dialog.

Also, VectorWorks might crash if the rendering model is retained by OpenGL.

Workaround:

1) Upgrade to the latest driver from ATI?s web site. It should solve the crash problem with Edit Mapping dialog.

For crash problem with retained model in OpenGL, upgrade to the latest driver, and if crash still occurs, do the following:

2) Go to VectorWorks Preference from File menu. Select 3D pane. Slide the ruler of "Retain Rendering Model" all the way to Never. Or,

2) Locate the file called ATION4AG.DLL in system directory, and move it away before launching VectorWorks.

For PCI board, this file could be named like ATION4PC.DLL.

Trade off: : Choosing either way might disable OpenGL interactive rendering

[Guest]

Good cards we've tested --

NVIDIA Quadro series for Workstations.

Various boards available on the market, such as NVIDIA Quadro2 Pro on Dell Workstation.

Matrox G series

Various boards available on the market.

G400, G450, G550 are popular for desktop PCs.

3D Labs GLINT R3

Oxygen VX1

NVIDIA Quadro series for Workstations.

Various boards available on the market, such as NVIDIA Quadro2 Pro on Dell Workstation.

((please see side note for this in the post above for small problems associated)

NVIDIA GeForce series including GeForceDDR, GeForce2, Geforce3, GeForce256 for Windows desktop PC.

Various boards available on the market.

(Please see note above about problems associated with this card)

[P Retondo]

I use the GeForce 4 Ti card, and it works just fine (P4, WinXP, VW 9.5.2). Actually speeded up some operations that demand fast screen redraw.