Recommended Graphics Card for Second Life

Is there a recommended graphics card for Second Life? Even though the game is mainly web-based, you'll still need a strong enough graphics card to handle the polygons that appear on the screen. Before you take a look at a recommended graphics card for Second Life, peruse through the basic system requirements to see if you already have the resources to meet them.

Meeting the minimum requirements can guarantee sufficient running. If you meet the recommended requirements, you'll have better game play enjoyment.

• Minimum: Windows XP or Vista; 800 Mhz Pentium 3 or Athlon, or better; 512 MB RAM.
• Recommended: Windows XP or Vista; 1.5 GHz (XP), 2 GHz (Vista) 32-bit or better; 1 GB RAM.

• Minimum: Mac OS X 10.4.11 or better; 1 GHz G4 or better; 512 MB RAM.
• Recommended: Mac OS X 10.5.4 or better; 1.25 G4 or better; 1 GB RAM.

Linux requires the same specifications as Windows except that you need to make sure the Linux version you're using is fairly recent and running in 32-bit. If your Linux is 64-bit, run Second Life in 32-bit compatibility mode and you should be fine.

With any of the above requirements, you need high-speed Internet. Dial-up, satellite and certain Internet providers are not compatible. If you have cable internet (Comcast, Roadrunner) or DSL (AT&T) then you should be fine.

Two kinds of graphics cards inhabit the market. Integrated cards are built into the motherboard and therefore use system memory to run graphics, which may not be good enough for Second Life. If you have 2 GB of RAM and the on-board card uses up to 256 MB of RAM, then you have 75% RAM left to run your computer. Also, integrated graphics won't have the advanced shading or polygon-pushing technology that dedicated cards have and which the powerful system of Second Life requires. The Intel Graphics Accelerator is the most common integrated card included with computers. Dedicated cards are the recommended graphics cards to play PC video games, especially the current games such as Second Life. Many dedicated cards have anywhere from 128 MB to 1 GB of RAM. The two popular brands are NVIDIA and ATI Radeon.

If you wish to purchase a dedicated graphics card for your system, you'll need to consider also purchasing a better power supply. Stock power supplies run about 350 Watts. Check the requirements of the dedicated power supply: you may need to up the Wattage to 500 or even 600.

If you are running Windows, the following graphics cards are recommended:

• NVIDIA. GeForce 6000 , 6600, 6700, 6800, and 7000 series. (some models may be integrated into your system already).
• NVIDIA GeForce 7600, 7800, 7900, and 8000 series.
• NVIDIA GeForce 8500, 8600, and 8800.
• NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600, 7800, and 7900 series.
• ATI X800, X900, X1600, and X1700 (some models may be integrated into your system)
• ATI X2600 and X2900 series.
• ATI X3650 and X3850
• Intel 945 chipset accelerator or better.

With Windows, ensure you are running with the latest drivers available. Depending on when the graphics card was manufactured, you may have to download updates to be compatible with any Vista updates.

If you are running the MAC OS, then the following cards are recommended:

• ATI Radeon 9200 or better
• ATI Radeon X Series (X1600, X1900, X2400, and X2600)
• NVIDIA GeForce 2 or GeForce 4.
• NVIDIA GeForce 6800, 7600, 7800, and 8800 series.

The Linux operation system can use some of the same cards as Windows, except for the Intel chipset graphics cards.

If your card isn't listed above, gameplay isn't guaranteed. The game will load and install, but you may experience graphics lag or slowdown due to incompatibility. Some cards not compatible at all include:

• 3DFX
• RIVA
• TNT
• SAVAGE
• RAGE
• Twister
• MILENNIA

Some models of NVIDIA and ATI may or may not work. Some ATI Radeon Xpress graphics cards work, but may lock up your computer. Uncertain compatibility also lies with the ATI FireGL and FireMV series.

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