Newbie Video Card Question

[Guest]

Hi Gang!

I just discovered Celestia and I am VERY impressed with what you all have done! I’m currently trying to come up to speed going through the user guide and lesson plan, and reading some of the vast forum archives.

I also successfully installed Celestia on my new computer and have been playing around with it. Everything looks great, although motion is a bit jerky. But every time the Milky Way moves onto the screen everything goes to hell! Refreshes become very sporadic, the screen may go white, and the app. often crashes. My computer has video support integrated into its motherboard, which I guess makes it pretty lame for 3D apps like Celestia.

Reading through the user guide and some of the forum posts I get the feeling that a GeForce FX 5200 or better graphics card would be a very good addition to my computer. However, after talking to several very computer savvy individuals (read engineers), I get the idea that ATI Radeon cards are currently better than NVIDIA cards for all-round 3D support. I read in the preliminary Celestia FAQ posted here that lower-priced ATI cards have issues when used with Celestia. But I get the impression that frequent driver updates make this a very slippery issue. I was looking at the ATI Radeon 9200 vs. the Asus V9520 FX5200, or perhaps the MSI FX5600-VTDR128 (Editor’s Choice award winner at tomshardware.com). Would I really be shooting myself in the foot going with the ATI card? Any other suggestions?

Thanks a bunch!

SloJoe

[selden]

SloJoe,

You need to decide what you want to use the system for.

Another consideration is whether you might want to use the system as a scaler to drive a high-end home-theater video system. My understanding is that traditionally ATI cards have generated better video signals than Nvidia cards when run in overlay mode. Whether or not that's the case when comparing current generation cards, I don't know. Visit the AV Science home theater Web forum for details.

Despite these technical minutia, however, the case remains that the people currently devoping Celestia have Nvidia cards and do not have ATI cards. This means that Celestia will tend to fewer visual bugs when run on a system with an Nvidia card.

[don]

Howdy SloJoe,

Welcome to the world of Celestia!

There are several folks here with high-end ATI Radeon cards (I have a 9700 Pro 128 MB) and most are satisfied as to their functionality. I do a lot of digital video work, play adventure games, and wanted a fast, all-around 3-D card, so I picked the ATI, in Feb 2003, before I knew about Celestia. BUT, I also have a fast processor (3.06 Ghz P4 with 1 GB of RAM) which helps quite a bit too.

Like Selden wrote, you need to consider the overall use of your computer system, and not just one program, unless you intend to upgrade the machine purely for running Celestia.

In the mean time, you can also turn off some of the items being rendered, which should speed up what remains to be rendered. Use the Render menu and select View Options. Lots of things to select / de-select there. You can also decrease the number of star positions to be calculated and displayed by using the "[" and "]" keys. Lower values will speed up rendering. Just experiment to see what works best for your system <smile>.

Once again, WELCOME to Celestia! Hope you get it running just right on your system.

-Don G.

[Tech Sgt. Chen]

Another option you can try (if you haven't already) is to shut down all other background programs (virus scan, Real Player, or other icons representing in your system tray) before running Celestia. Though it may not run flawlessly, it should definitely improve the performance.
As far as upgrading your graphics card, I'm no expert but, my son builds computers. I asked him once about upgrading my own card and, although it is a matter of preference. He prefers the NVIDEA cards over ATI. Also, (though you may have already done this) check with the computer manufacturer who probably has a support section for such upgrades to your system.

Post Script: Welcome my fellow neophyte!

[Guest]

Thanks for the welcome and the suggestions! I ended up going back to the store where I bought the computer and talked with the salesman. He suggested trying updated drivers first since he felt the amount of RAM I have (512M) should be more than enough with my on-board video support. Sure enough, the new driver made a huge difference! I can now view LOTS more detail in Celestia (WOW!). I don't know if it will be enough to view the really high resolution add ons out there...but I've got a bit of a learning curve to travel before I get there. Either way I'm gonna have some FUN!

Thanks again,
SloJoe

[Darkmiss]

Hello and Welcome SloJoe

I hope you find the right 3D card to add to your system
but please get a 128meg card if you can

the detail on 16k textures and bigger virual textures are fantastic.
and 128 will make them run very smooth indeed.