Get A Decent Video Card for Vista

[Lang Murphy]

Ah... late at night, sitting on the front porch, surprised I'm getting Wi-Fi
signal here, but, hey, it's all good.

This won't come as any surprise to the experienced users in this group, but
thought I'd post anyway...

When it comes time to upgrade your PC to run Vista, or if you're buying a
new box for whatever reason...

Don't skimp on the video card. Get the best video card you can afford. It is
the main factor in how your PC will present Vista's UI to you. And I'm not
talking just about gaming...

If you can't afford a decent video card... then give up thoughts of running
Aero Glass. Not a great loss, to be sure... and... I created a matrix
tonight of the 3 boxes on which I'm running Vista.

Too detailed to post the whole thing here, and I believe they discourage, if
not completely forbid, the posting of attachements in a non-binary NG, so
I'll summarize.

The box I'm on now has a duo core 1.83GHz P4. Got the highest processor
rating from Windows Experience of the 3 boxes (the other two being a P4 HT
3GHz box and the third being a P4 3.8GHz box). Also got the lowest video
rating because I haven't found video drivers that will install for Vista.
Point in fact: it "appears" to be the slowest box because of the lack of
Vista video drivers. Even though it is not running Aero Glass.

I guess the point I'm trying to make here is: don't expect your P3 with 32MB
video RAM to run Vista acceptably. As all of the experienced users know...
take MS's recommended minimum, crank it up 2x's and you'll have the real
world minimum for every new MS OS. Crank it up 4x's and you may even be
happy. Or you could always stick with XP or W2K or Win98 or Win95 or <insert
distro here> Linux.

Apologies to all for the late night screed...

Lang

 

[Alan Simpson]

IMHO - the guy who wrote this article hit the hardware nail right on the
head:

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2000438,00.asp

Drive speed, which is the bottleneck in most systems, is going to be a
biggie in Vista.

 

[John Jay Smith]

you are so right... ! lets all spend 300 dollars for a VGA card
where you can buy whole boxes for that amount just so we can see nice
glass effects in vista!

 

[William]

Try $50.00-60.00 for an Nvidia GeForce FX5200 which will Aero Glass just
fine.

William

 

[John Jay Smith]

yeah.. that's the range that I will pay for a card when vista comes
out......
I don't play 3d games, no games at all in fact...

What will happen though is that the prices of advanced cards will drop more
and GPU power will go up...

this will lead to applications and virtual environments that will
created....
We will see things that we only saw on science fiction movies.

So there is a good side to vistas stupid hardware requirements....***

Its the law of polar opposites in action.


***Note, windowblinds can give you glass effects with far older cards...
with a good performance too.

 

[Alan Simpson]

Here's an interesting quote from nVidia's page on Vista:

"To fully experience Windows Vista, Microsoft® and other industry experts
recommend using a PC that is 10 times more powerful than those required by
previous generations of Windows..."

This will surely be the most hated thing about Vista. And the one that
causes the most whinin' opinin' and gnashing of teeth for many months. Maybe
even years.

(UAC will be the second most hated thing).

 

[John Jay Smith]

the law of polar opposites means that on the bright side this will create
the need for far more powerful computers at very low costs... this will mean
that there will be more computing power for other applications that use
microchips... like robots for example.

remember, your cell phone now has more computing power than the computer on
the appollo 11 lunar orbiter

 

[Chat]

''remember, your cell phone now has more computing power than the computer
on
the appollo 11 lunar orbiter''

My cell phone needs ALL that computing power to drop as many calls as it
does ;o)


"John Jay Smith" <-> wrote in message
the law of polar opposites means that on the bright side this will create
the need for far more powerful computers at very low costs... this will mean
that there will be more computing power for other applications that use
microchips... like robots for example.

remember, your cell phone now has more computing power than the computer on
the appollo 11 lunar orbiter

 

[John Jay Smith]

the lunar lander called "eagle" has this computer to take the data from the
radar
while the lander was approaching the moon surface... it kept crashing!!!
the data was too fast for this small ancient computer.
Eventually Armstrong overrided the computer end landed the thing manually...

its a miracle they made it

 

[Alan Simpson]

Funny you should mention the lunar landing:

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=12143

(Anyone remember what the lunar landing did actually cost? I think MS is
about $9 billion into Vista and Office 2007 about now. But don't quote me on
that).

 

[John Jay Smith]

See my vistaword page.. towards the bottom I have quoted from famous
people...

http://vistabulary.computerboom.com

Bill Gates mimicking JFK's moon speech: "No single computer project in this
period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the
long-range exploration of technology; and none will be so difficult or
expensive to accomplish,"
(difficult & expensive? You can say that again!)


(jfk was talking about going to the moon)

 

[Chad Harris]

Gates was trying his hand at standup comedy wasn't he, to take some breaks
from the difficult medical problems that the Gates Foundation is trying to
solve?

MSFT has taken a page out of the Republican National Committee's strategy
for retaining control of both branches of Congress--fear fear fear and more
fear. We need use nothing but fear itself. Scare the crap outta them and
make our 300 OEM partners have a very very good 4th quarter 2006 and 2007.

Subliminal message--You must buy more hardware; You must have Core 2 Duo or
Core 2 Extreme or AMD 64 FX or your box will crawl like legless snail. You
can't be too rich, too skinny or have enough RAM or GHz to paraphrase
Anderson Cooper's mother Gloria Vanderbilt.

CH

 

[Guest]

don't need the best video card...i'm on a PCI Geforce FX 5200 w/256 VRAM.
Cost me less than 50 bucks. my mobo doesn't even have an AGP or PCI-E slot.
aero glass works fine for me. flip 3D, flip, live taskbar thumbnails all
perfect. Have widescreen 1440 x 900 display too. I think the amount of RAM
is more important.

 

[William]

A modern pocket calculator has more power than the computer on the Lunar
Module had.

William

 

[Bernie]

A modern pocket calculator has more power than the computer on the Lunar
Module had.

Over the years I've heard versions of that many times but I've never
seen the actual specs of whatever computer they had. Do you know a
source for that?

 

[Bernie]

don't need the best video card...i'm on a PCI Geforce FX 5200 w/256 VRAM.
Cost me less than 50 bucks. my mobo doesn't even have an AGP or PCI-E slot.
aero glass works fine for me. flip 3D, flip, live taskbar thumbnails all
perfect. Have widescreen 1440 x 900 display too. I think the amount of RAM
is more important.

I'm using a Geforce 5600ultra which isn't that much higher in spec and I
paid less than $40 on ebay for it about a month ago. Somewhere in the
Vista readings I've done it says the card must be capable of various
DirectX9 functions and that is about it.

 

[Chad Harris]

http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/vs-mit-apollo-guidance.html


Hobbyist reconstructs Apollo's computer
http://news.com.com/Hobbyist+reconstructs+Apollos+computer/2100-1003_3-5570963.html

Apollo 11 Guidance Computer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Guidance_Computer

CH

The War in Iraq has been won hands down by IRAN--IRAN would like to thank
the Bush moron.

If you're El Quaeda Bush and Congress are a dream come true. 5 years after
911 they are pissing away hundeds of billions on Iraq and a Shia Ascendancy
and are too cheap to X-Ray more than 6% of the cargo on commercial
airliners. Could they be more stupid? Only a moron thinks you can't
disguise explosives as a baby bottle and create a flavor that makes it taste
like cherry cream soda.

Politicizing terrorism by Rove is not only obscene, it's consummately
stupid. Rove is Bin Ladin's dream. If Bin Ladin could vote for everyone at
the poles, they'd keep Republican conservatives in for ever.

 

[Chad Harris]

What MSFT knows: The PT Barnumization of Vista. A Sucker is born every
minute.

We couldn't make the operating system work--Balmer ought to elaborate on the
big mistake he claims was made that cost a ton of features in Vista.

You can run Vista on a 32MB video card just fine. I've done it. You need
Aero Glass like you need a hole through your frontal lobe with a hollow
point bullet.

3rd party has had effects that look exactly like Aero Glass, Flip 3D and
every spinoff that will be related to RTM when Sinofsky boxes crap with far
superior 3D looks for years.

Aero Glass is MSFT appealing to the breed of civilization who has to show up
in the neighborhood with an SUV and a little polo on an ordinary golf shirt
for status.

I'm surprised the Windows Start Button isn't a Hummer II. The commercial
with the consummately stupid mommy who is shoved aside at the sliding board
and solves her problem by going out and getting a Hummer is the same
narcissistic personality that MSFT appeals to with Aero Frigging Glass.
It's worthless. "No it's [Valley Girl lilt] like Way Kuelllll" "Mommy go
get me some Aero Glass. Gotta have it."

What the hell function does Aero Glass give you ? If that's MSFT's idea of
good looks, they need a massive retinal and optic lobe transplant.

They should be focusing on why Win RE doesn't work most of the time and why
SFC switches don't work in every single Branch of RC1 including what the
shipped to TAP August 2.

You can get great sound on a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz Vintage 2000 sound card
if you know driver tricks in Vista.

No wonder the NYTimes did a front page story on the shrink who has made
millions advising companies on how to design SUVs for the reptilian
primitive brain.

It's means marketing to the brain of Fred Flintstone and Barney is alive
and well.

CH

 

[Guest]

I don't think aero glass is that bad...kind of cool. sure, eye candy, but it
works fine for a cheap <$50 price for graphics card.

What MSFT knows: The PT Barnumization of Vista. A Sucker is born every
minute.

We couldn't make the operating system work--Balmer ought to elaborate on the
big mistake he claims was made that cost a ton of features in Vista.

You can run Vista on a 32MB video card just fine. I've done it. You need
Aero Glass like you need a hole through your frontal lobe with a hollow
point bullet.

3rd party has had effects that look exactly like Aero Glass, Flip 3D and
every spinoff that will be related to RTM when Sinofsky boxes crap with far
superior 3D looks for years.

Aero Glass is MSFT appealing to the breed of civilization who has to show up
in the neighborhood with an SUV and a little polo on an ordinary golf shirt
for status.

I'm surprised the Windows Start Button isn't a Hummer II. The commercial
with the consummately stupid mommy who is shoved aside at the sliding board
and solves her problem by going out and getting a Hummer is the same
narcissistic personality that MSFT appeals to with Aero Frigging Glass.
It's worthless. "No it's [Valley Girl lilt] like Way Kuelllll" "Mommy go
get me some Aero Glass. Gotta have it."

What the hell function does Aero Glass give you ? If that's MSFT's idea of
good looks, they need a massive retinal and optic lobe transplant.

They should be focusing on why Win RE doesn't work most of the time and why
SFC switches don't work in every single Branch of RC1 including what the
shipped to TAP August 2.

You can get great sound on a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz Vintage 2000 sound card
if you know driver tricks in Vista.

No wonder the NYTimes did a front page story on the shrink who has made
millions advising companies on how to design SUVs for the reptilian
primitive brain.

It's means marketing to the brain of Fred Flintstone and Barney is alive
and well.

CH

don't need the best video card...i'm on a PCI Geforce FX 5200 w/256 VRAM.
Cost me less than 50 bucks. my mobo doesn't even have an AGP or PCI-E
slot.
aero glass works fine for me. flip 3D, flip, live taskbar thumbnails all
perfect. Have widescreen 1440 x 900 display too. I think the amount of
RAM
is more important.

 

[Chad Harris]

I don't think it's bad in the sense of evil, but unfortunately it has been a
publicity vehicle and it masks the fact that in Vista "the emperor has no
clothes."

CH

I don't think aero glass is that bad...kind of cool. sure, eye candy, but
it
works fine for a cheap <$50 price for graphics card.

What MSFT knows: The PT Barnumization of Vista. A Sucker is born every
minute.

We couldn't make the operating system work--Balmer ought to elaborate on
the
big mistake he claims was made that cost a ton of features in Vista.

You can run Vista on a 32MB video card just fine. I've done it. You need
Aero Glass like you need a hole through your frontal lobe with a hollow
point bullet.

3rd party has had effects that look exactly like Aero Glass, Flip 3D and
every spinoff that will be related to RTM when Sinofsky boxes crap with
far
superior 3D looks for years.

Aero Glass is MSFT appealing to the breed of civilization who has to show
up
in the neighborhood with an SUV and a little polo on an ordinary golf
shirt
for status.

I'm surprised the Windows Start Button isn't a Hummer II. The commercial
with the consummately stupid mommy who is shoved aside at the sliding
board
and solves her problem by going out and getting a Hummer is the same
narcissistic personality that MSFT appeals to with Aero Frigging Glass.
It's worthless. "No it's [Valley Girl lilt] like Way Kuelllll" "Mommy
go
get me some Aero Glass. Gotta have it."

What the hell function does Aero Glass give you ? If that's MSFT's idea
of
good looks, they need a massive retinal and optic lobe transplant.

They should be focusing on why Win RE doesn't work most of the time and
why
SFC switches don't work in every single Branch of RC1 including what the
shipped to TAP August 2.

You can get great sound on a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz Vintage 2000 sound
card
if you know driver tricks in Vista.

No wonder the NYTimes did a front page story on the shrink who has made
millions advising companies on how to design SUVs for the reptilian
primitive brain.

It's means marketing to the brain of Fred Flintstone and Barney is alive
and well.

CH

don't need the best video card...i'm on a PCI Geforce FX 5200 w/256
VRAM.
Cost me less than 50 bucks. my mobo doesn't even have an AGP or PCI-E
slot.
aero glass works fine for me. flip 3D, flip, live taskbar thumbnails
all
perfect. Have widescreen 1440 x 900 display too. I think the amount
of
RAM
is more important.

:

Ah... late at night, sitting on the front porch, surprised I'm getting
Wi-Fi
signal here, but, hey, it's all good.

This won't come as any surprise to the experienced users in this
group,
but
thought I'd post anyway...

When it comes time to upgrade your PC to run Vista, or if you're
buying a
new box for whatever reason...

Don't skimp on the video card. Get the best video card you can afford.
It
is
the main factor in how your PC will present Vista's UI to you. And I'm
not
talking just about gaming...

If you can't afford a decent video card... then give up thoughts of
running
Aero Glass. Not a great loss, to be sure... and... I created a matrix
tonight of the 3 boxes on which I'm running Vista.

Too detailed to post the whole thing here, and I believe they
discourage,
if
not completely forbid, the posting of attachements in a non-binary NG,
so
I'll summarize.

The box I'm on now has a duo core 1.83GHz P4. Got the highest
processor
rating from Windows Experience of the 3 boxes (the other two being a
P4
HT
3GHz box and the third being a P4 3.8GHz box). Also got the lowest
video
rating because I haven't found video drivers that will install for
Vista.
Point in fact: it "appears" to be the slowest box because of the lack
of
Vista video drivers. Even though it is not running Aero Glass.

I guess the point I'm trying to make here is: don't expect your P3
with
32MB
video RAM to run Vista acceptably. As all of the experienced users
know...
take MS's recommended minimum, crank it up 2x's and you'll have the
real
world minimum for every new MS OS. Crank it up 4x's and you may even
be
happy. Or you could always stick with XP or W2K or Win98 or Win95 or
<insert
distro here> Linux.

Apologies to all for the late night screed...

Lang