128MB or 256MB video cards?

[peter]

The minimum requirement for vista seems to be 128MB video card. Would I gain
any functionality by going to a 256MB card?

 

[John]

Its not required, however if you have a DX9 video card with pixel shader 2.0
support with a decent amount of memory, and proper driver support you can
use the Aero Glass theme.

Don't upgrade your video card unless you want better gaming performance,
Aero Glass is not worth the upgrade.

The minimum requirement for vista seems to be 128MB video card. Would I gain
any functionality by going to a 256MB card?

 

[Guest]

I am running Vista B2 on an 8 meg ATI card in my daughters pc and it is doing
just fine... I guess it just depends on what you want to do with it... She
doesnt watch movies on it. She does some photo editing for web based stuff
and has had no issue with the small video card yet. For that matter she just
loves it and it appears to run just as well as XP did. Some things are a
little slow but not bad at all.

 

[JW]

128 MB is the redcommended about by MS for the processing of 1080i HD
programs Any more than that is nor requred or used so it just increases the
cost, power consumption and head generated by the card. The addition
memory, however, is a definite asset for high performance gaming
applications. So if you are not a gamer you don't have any need for it.

 

[Kerry Brown]

I don't agree with this. Upgrading to a video card that supported Aero Glass
increased the overall speed of my computer with Vista. Vista can offload
much of the graphics processing from the CPU to the GPU with a video card
that supports Aero Glass.

 

[peter]

I don't agree with this. Upgrading to a video card that supported Aero
Glass increased the overall speed of my computer with Vista. Vista can
offload much of the graphics processing from the CPU to the GPU with a
video card that supports Aero Glass.

Do all the video adapters listed in ms' hardware compatibility list support
aero glass? The cheapest ones in this list is around $30 (nvidia 5200 based
with 128M) so I wouldn't mind buying one.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/evaluate/hardware/entpguid.mspx#EDD

 

[Kerry Brown]

Spend a bit more and get a GeForce 6 or 7 series card. Read the page you
linked to very carefully. NVidia recommends the GeForce 6 or 7 series for
the best Vista experience on consumer pc's.

 

[LaRoux]

More RAM will allow higher resolutions and\or dual monitors. From the
Vista Hardware Planning Guidance
(http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/evaluate/hardware/vistarpc.mspx)

Adequate graphics memory is defined as:
– 64 MB of graphics memory to support a single monitor at 1,310,720
or less
– 128 MB of graphics memory to support a single monitor at
resolutions 2,304,000 pixels or less
– 256 MB of graphics memory to support a single monitor at
resolutions higher than 2,304,000 pixels
– Graphics memory bandwidth, as assessed by Windows Vista Upgrade
Advisor, of at least 1,600 MB per second