[LeighJW]

I just put fs_open source on my computer.  I have always been a freespace nut but never heard of open source until i put vista home on my machine and was looking around so see if freespace worked w/Vista.  I realize I need a better video card.  I have an ATI Radeon HT1900 am looking at 4870 with 512 DDR5 memory do I need one with 1mb DDR5 memory?

[Blue Lion]

I would think both would work fine for FS2. Mine is way less than that and works just fine. Dunno what else you're doing though.

Also welcome aboard! 

[Polpolion]

do I need one with 1mb DDR5 memory?

1mb is a little low.

[captain-custard]

dont know if this will help any but i was sure there was a radion post hiding in support so have a look here


http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,60700.0.html



good luck

[Zacam]

I think he means 1GB of memory.

A 512 anything that is current will handle FSOpen and the MediaVPs pretty fine. A 1 GB card is nothing to sneeze at, but not necessary for full enjoyment. And while SLI/Crossfire of 2 512=Teh Win and 2 1024's=Teh Awesome, also not necessary.

Recommendation would be any card that honestly (and FULLY) supports Shader Model 3.0. As long as you keep that spec in mind and aim for at least 512 mb of memory, you will not go wrong.

And that ATI link thread is for much older radeons, though it may prove useful for the current x1900 you currently have.

[S-99]

In my experience a midrange card with 256mb will let you run fs2 scp on max settings. I run the game on max settings on crappy 8400m gs 128mb, it plays fine for the most part with some slow down at 1440x900.

It doesn't take uber super powerful video hardware to run fs2 scp on max settings. Like i said, a good midrange card with 256mb will work great.

[azile0]

Yoink!

[Daniel P]

I once run freespace one one 1MB of video memory. Oddly it does work and simcity 4 too.

My graphic card at one point was a 1MB graphic card. Now it a 256MB nvidia GEforce 5500.

Can freespace 2 can run on 1MB graphic card.

[S-99]

Sounds like there that you were just running fs1 in software mode rather than with 3d acceleration. With the fso you can continue to run in software mode if you want.
When you're running in software mode, it has nothing to do with your video card whatsoever. Your cpu does all the graphical work and uses your video card as no more than an interface to output a video signal.

I really do like games with software mode support. Fs1, unreal tournament, unreal tournament 2003/2004 were all games that looked really great with it.

[Polpolion]

Didn't FS1 have glowmaps?

[IceFire]

Didn't FS1 have glowmaps?

Sort of...but I think they only worked in software mode.

I remember playing in software mode...them were the days.  Then I got the nVidia TNT and all was right with the world

Looking for a new video card myself since mine just died today.  Looking at the GTS 250 or the GTX 260.  The GTS 250...despite the fact that I realize its a rebranded 9800GTX+ its actually a fair bit less on the power consumption and its not far off the GTX 260 in most applications so its sort of appealing.  Trying to figure out which way to jump.

[CP5670]

Didn't FS1 have glowmaps?

Sort of...but I think they only worked in software mode.

They worked in Glide too, and the same went for FS2. That was probably the biggest attraction of the Glide mode back then. Once you had seen the glowmapped ships in Glide, D3D looked dull and lifeless in comparison.

[ssmit132]

Didn't FS1 have glowmaps?

Sort of...but I think they only worked in software mode.

They worked in Glide too, and the same went for FS2. That was probably the biggest attraction of the Glide mode back then. Once you had seen the glowmapped ships in Glide, D3D looked dull and lifeless in comparison.

Wasn't that just the No Dim thing?

[JGZinv]

I just bought a Sager 5795 with a nVidia GeForce GTX 280M w/1GB loaded up...
so if anyone is going to manage to break something using the freshest drivers...

Probably will be me...     

[S-99]

The fs series in glide was the greatest.

[CP5670]

They worked in Glide too, and the same went for FS2. That was probably the biggest attraction of the Glide mode back then. Once you had seen the glowmapped ships in Glide, D3D looked dull and lifeless in comparison.

Wasn't that just the No Dim thing?

Yeah, but it produced the same visual effect as glowmaps.

[LeighJW]

Thanks guys for all the advice and wisdom.  I did mean 1 GB and not 1 MB.  I descided to go with the ATI Radeon 4870 with 512MB of GDDR 5 memory.

[S-99]

Speaking of glide and 3dfx. I rather liked playing in 16 bit for all of my games. Just a preference i developed.