I am currently using Oxygen VX1 with 256RAM on Maya 3.0 and Softimage 3.8. My questions are I want to play gaming on my system, but I also want my system to speed-up.
Should I up-grade my video card to GeForce 256 or others, or should I up-grade the memory to 512RAM.
(my budget is around $400CAD, so i don’t know should i up-grade only one choice or both!)
Which other video card could suitable for gaming and animation, but will not affect my work?
(I am working on effect field, so I need to preview texture most likely. But on my spare time, I want to join some online game!)
Hi XOCat, nice to meet you…
Ok, lots to say but unfortunately tho, its not gonna answer yer questions directly…why? Cuz its all conditional:
First, yer VX1 does NOT have 256mb of RAM…well, not exactly…its whats called virtual memory…it actually has 32mb of on board RAM…its still a good thing tho
Ok, now for the complicated stuff…
You really have to know what part of your 3d work do you want to speed up: your video card is in charge of your viewport display and how fast they are, your RAM and your processor determine the overall spped of your application (program) and how fast your renders are.
256 megs of RAM is MINIMUM to run Maya and Soft…maybe not officially, but trust me, to run Maya alone, your PC is already dedicating around 100 megs of ram to help run the program itself especially when using the IPR. RAM is a good thing, get more whenever you have the oppurtunity.
The VX1 is a great card, not so much for its speed, but more for its stability. It is meant to run 3d applications. Yes, the GeForce has very impressive stats, but it is A GAMING CARD. The GeForce is actually missing a feature that the VX1 supports that make it a better candidate to run Maya: hardware overlays. What this will mean is that when using Paint FX and Artisan, a GeForce card may have a hard time.
The GeForce is a poly pusher (25 mill for a GF2 GTS, and 31 mill for the upcoming Ultra) and a fast one. Which means to me, that if anything it was meant to do realtime character animation of highly detailed models. What it also means is that this card isn’t necessarily well equipped to do particle effects (which you may want to do).
A good source tells me that gaming cards are really good out the gate, meaing when you begin a scene, they really impress, in fact somtimes look better than a profesional card in terms of performance, but at a certain point, when a scene starts getting really complex, and animation is thrown into the mix, the card will choke whereas the pro card will kepp going. I believe it.
I would keep that VX1 if you were really serious about doing hardcore FX at home.
I would only consider changing it if your scenes were really slowing down (display) or if you just cant give up gaming or if you feel your work/scenes wont get to heavy and if they’re just school projects.
If you really want a gaming card, then yeah a GeForce is your best bet. The GF 256’s are getting down below 400, some even 300, and will go even further down when the GF2 Ultras come to town this October (cant wait!!)
Didn’t mean to scare you, a gaming card WILL get the job done (thank god!) and they’re a great alternative for students. Just remeber that there are reasons why pro cards are made, and it isn’t always about speed or poly pushing.
It was late, I was tired
But that virtual memory feature for VX1 was the first thing that came to mind when i read it, but you’re probably right, dude.
Take care, and thanx!
You could always get an add on card like a voodoo 2 for games… it won’t do much for the system speed, but it will do wonders for the games. Speed wise you might want to look into faster drives. If you’re using SCSI go to the next level if you’re using UIDE try going to a 7200 RMP drive. Little things like that will add speed and effect over all proformance.
Hey there,
Just wondering, sicne it was a kind of related thread (ill post a new one as well).
How do the Oxygen card really perform? Im currently looking into getting the GVX210, but havnt really got an answer on what is better.
First. Im using 3D Studio Max 3.1 (under W2K) and thats where I want the performance. I also want good performance in After Effects. But this workstation will NOT be used for games or some stuff like that, its purely proffesional so I don’t care about Quake3 performance or something
I don’t relly know anything about computers neither so stability is a must since I can’t tweak stuff… and price is not really an issue.
What card should I be going for? GeForce? Oxygen GVX210 or other oxygen card?
