Your Graphics Card: How Old/New Is It?

[jakj]

I'd like to take a quick cross-section of the Technic community to see what kind of graphics you folks are capable of. So far, I've been targetting OpenGL 2.1 / GLSL 1.20 (roughly DirectX 9 and Shader Model 2/3), but I've read the newer specs, and I'm wanting to move up.

So, I want to find out what proportion of the userbase here is limited to what level of GL/DX support. The basic options are:

• OpenGL 2 / GLSL 1 (DirectX 9 / Shader Model 2/3)
  
• OpenGL 3 / GLSL 3 (DirectX 10 / Shader Model 4)
  
• OpenGL 4 / GLSL 4 (DirectX 11 / Shader Model 5)
  

And, as a shortcut, if you're using Windows XP, you're on DirectX 9. If you are using XP as your main gaming platform, that's important information too, as XP has only (roughly) 1.5 years of support left at all.

If you don't know how to figure any of that out, just post what kind of graphics card or integrated graphics you have. (If you have integrated graphics and don't know how to figure out what you have, post what make/model computer you have, such as "Dell E521".)

If you feel like posting how much VRAM you have, that's cool too, but not vital, because memory allocation is already dynamic to how much you try to load, so if you have less VRAM, you can simply load less.

[ZombieWarpig]

Alienware M17x R3 / ATI 6970M 2GB DX11

[jakj]

Oh yeah, I suppose I could post my own just for S&G, so you know what my code is tested on: nVidia GTX 460 (GL 4.2 / GLSL 4.2 / DX11 / SM 5) 1 GiB

[The_DarthMoogle]

GTX 570 is an awesome piece of kit, and will chew through any game for the next five years, no doubt.

OpenGl 4.2 / DX11

And it's awesomely priced for what's inside.

What's actually letting me down is this awful hard drive. Don't know whether an SSD is really worth it though.

[Sacrieur]

I'm running a Radeon Sapphire HD 6870.

It's beautiful.

---

Moogle: Right now I'm running an OCZ Vertex III SSD (I know, OCZ has gotten a bad rap, but after the firmware fix the Vertex III/IV lines are pretty solid, I guess if you know what you're doing anyway).

The HDD -> SSD shift is pretty awesome. I don't know what loading times are anymore. And my computer boots up in like five seconds. *drool*

[jakj]

Until it reaches its limit of rewrites and starts getting bad sectors and you have to throw the thing away. I don't trust modern game data to be static enough to really justify an SSD if I don't have money to just throw away: Logfiles and settings and what-not all would overuse the drive unnecessarily.

That wouldn't be an issue if all games ran well under Linux, of course, because you could just use symbolic linking to easily redirect dynamic subdirectories to another drive. Getting symbolic links working acceptably on other platorms (especially Windows), though, is too ridiculous to contemplate.

The technology is definitely not yet there for people on budgets to invest in SSDs, even small ones.

[Munaus]

Nvidia Geforce GT 335M, it's built in with my Asus N73jn laptop.

[The Merchant of Menace]

I'm on some form of shitty intel chipset. The Mobile Express 4 series or something.

[SimpleGuy]

I have an NVidia GeForce GTX 560 Ti, which I use mainly for CUDA (which in turn nearly ruined my chip when it got above 90C)

[jakj]

Crap. Well, we're already getting responses of people limited to GL 2.1 / GLSL 1.20. I feared as much. Now to do some hard thinking about advanced features versus broader availability.

[Jorcer]

I would like to help but I don't know the name of my card... I know where to find it in the diagnostic tool but not sure what it is actually called...

EDIT: Found it (I hope) NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M

[ZombieWarpig]

open your run command and type dxdiag and look under display

[Sacrieur]

I store sensitive documents on sites like drop box or spare HDDs, but only use my SSD as a main drive. Theoretically, though, SSDs are more reliable than HDDs (but after firmware problems, meh).

I was wary when I bought it and have an extended warranty; also, since any information I need is tucked away on various servers and backup drives, if it fails I can send it in for a replacement and be just fine. As long as you're smart about it you get the speed without any real risk despite maybe a few days of inconvenience.

[Torezu]

Oh yeah, I suppose I could post my own just for S&G, so you know what my code is tested on: nVidia GTX 460 (GL 4.2 / GLSL 4.2 / DX11 / SM 5) 1 GiB

I have this.

[freakachu]

2 GTX580s in SLI. hundreds of FPS!

[Rossy1210011]

im running a 1GB MSI R6850 Cyclone IGD5 power edition with 8gb ram, hope this is as good as i think

[Torezu]

2 GTX580s in SLI. hundreds of FPS!

[jealousy] I no longer like you as much. [/jealousy]

[Diddums]

2x Powercolor HD6950 PCS++ in Crossfire. Shaders unlocked, not overclocked as I've got no need for it yet.

I think they're such sexy cards.

[Hushful]

I do not have a card, I have Intel Integrated Expresss Chipset 82945G.

[jakj]

Fuck...OpenGL 1.4 with no shader support at all? Well then. Even Merchant's rig is better than yours. Well, I need some shader support to do anything at all, without basically having to rewrite the entire Minecraft rendering engine myself, so I have to draw the line there. GL 2.1 / GLSL 1.20 it is, then. Ah, well.

[Hushful]

Fuck...OpenGL 1.4 with no shader support at all? Well then. Even Merchant's rig is better than yours. Well, I need some shader support to do anything at all, without basically having to rewrite the entire Minecraft rendering engine myself, so I have to draw the line there. GL 2.1 / GLSL 1.20 it is, then. Ah, well.

Way to cut me low. I thought we were tight, Jakj. LOL, yea, I have to work with what I've got though.

[Xylord]

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M 2 GB DX11, on my laptop ASUS G55V, I love it, it chews through anything.

[NightKev]

That wouldn't be an issue if all games ran well under Linux, of course, because you could just use symbolic linking to easily redirect dynamic subdirectories to another drive. Getting symbolic links working acceptably on other platorms (especially Windows), though, is too ridiculous to contemplate.

My system (Windows 7 x64 Pro) is filled with a billion symlinks all over the place and I haven't had any problems. Maybe on XP it was a problem but they seem to have gotten their shit together for Win7.

Also, Radeon HD 5830 here.

[dragonshardz]

Windows 7 Professional x64, 2x nVidia GTS 250 in SLI. In general, performs comparable to a mid-range 400 series or a low end 500 series.

They're starting to show their age, Diablo 3 dropped and I started having GFX hitching and other such fun stuff. Then again D3 is pretty terrible anyway.

[jakj]

Yeah well, can't do masking or subtexturing in vanilla without massive base edits or shaders.