Video cards - definative list

[Nominal]

Is there an official list somewhere of what video cards work best and worst with mastercam?

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

No, but if you do a search in the forum, you'll pretty much find that as of right now V9.x NVIdia Chipsets are great (Midrange and above), ATI and Drugs... Just Say NO! Matrox midrange cards, decent. Creative Labs midrange and above pretty good.

 

That pretty much sums it up.

[Nominal]

Nevermind I found it.

[Nominal]

Thanks James. I was posting the nevermind at the same time you were responding. I went by the info under the information link at the top of this forum. But yeah they are pretty much saying the same thing as you.

[Rekd™]

I didn't see anything about the SIS Pro 64MB AGP Video card which I'm considering. I think since it's AGP it might be ok. Anyone have any thoughts?

 

'Rekd

[Bullines]

Is it one of the Xabre models? SiS' onboard stuff is as good as Intel's (read: not very good for 3D). I know SiS' Xabre cards are a bit better, but I don't think they can compare to equivalent nVIDIA and ATI cards.

[Rekd™]

It doesn't say if it's the Xabre model or not, here's the spec list:

 

System Features:

# An Intel Pentium 4 3.06GHz Hyperthreading processor;

# 533 MHz Front Side Bus

# 120 GB Western Digital EIDE Hard Drive;

# DVD-RW/CD-RW Drive

# DVD Drive

# 512Mb DDR memory;

# 17" SVGA color monitor – 16” viewing area

# Pro Gear Duo-Removable Compact Memory Flashcard Reader W/ Memory Stick Pro™, Smartmedia, Microdrive, Multimedia, Secure Digital XD, 1 USB & 1 Firewire Port

# Four USB 2.0 connectors (upgradeable)

# 56K v.90 modem;

# Ethernet Adapter 10/100

# Six foot power cord

# ECS P4VMM2 Motherboard

# Power supply: Powerwin ATX 250 watt

# Chassis: Microatx case (all black) 7511 BK

# Heat sink and cooling fan

 

Multimedia Features:

# Sound Blaster compatible audio card

# SIS Pro 64MB AGP Video

# Labtec 2.1 speaker system with subwoofer

# Wireless mouse/keyboard:

# Microphone

 

'Rekd

[Bullines]

quote:

---

# Sound Blaster compatible audio card

# SIS Pro 64MB AGP Video

---

These two lines lead me to belive that it may be onboard. The sound line is what tips me off; "Sound Blaster compatible audio card". Where there's onboard sound, there's a good chance onboard video will be there.

 

If you know the mobo model, that'll help answer the question.

[Rekd™]

quote:

---

# 56K v.90 modem;

---

YAYS!!! I can finally ditch my tin can w/string modem!!!

 

'Rekd teh technologically challenged

[Rekd™]

I'll see if I can find it, thanks Bullines!

 

'Rekd

[Mike Mattera - TFM]

So Rekd, how much is that box?

I just bought a killer box from magicmicro.com

Actually got it off Ebay 3.2Ghz AMD64 w/ 1GB Ram, 800mhz bus, 120GB HD and a 256mb FX5600 Nvidia. Under $1000. This thing SCREAMS!!!!!!

 

Mike Mattera

[Rekd™]

Mike, I haven't bought it yet. Just found it last night.

 

Some other things it has:

 

Digi Cam Corder

 

Lexmark Color Print/Copy/Scan/Fax

 

and lots of what they claim to be full (not demo/trialware) software packages.. (Lol, notice OpenOffice )

 

Software:

 

CD 1

OpenOffice.org, Peachtree 1st Accounting 2004, McAfee VirusScan Online, Quicken Willmaker Plus 2004, Quicken Legal Business Pro 2004, Laplink Gold 11, ExpensAble, Easy Translator v4, INFOtrac personal 2003, Form Tool v5, Turbo Project v4, Smart Business Plan Deluxe 8.0, Ability PhotoPaint Studio, Personal Record Keeper, Financial Powertools, iClean, Stuffit Standard, Net Knowledge Tools - iAnnotate it - iCapture it - iOrganize it, DiskKeeper lte, Eudora Pro Email, MusicaMatch 7.1, 3001 Business and Sales Letter

 

CD 2

Ulead Cool 360, 3D Album, Zoner Draw, Screen Saver magic deluxe, digital lifeline, Cyber Sentinl 1.6, Smart Attorney Deluxe, Nova Backup, MP3i, Talkit Type it, SpamCatcher, Easy fax, Tax Act Plus 2003

 

CD 3

Rosetta Stone PowerPac - learn 7 languages - Spanish, French, German, Italian, Russian, Japanese, Chinese

 

CD 4

Quicken 2003 New User Edition

 

CD 5

PrintShop Select 20

 

CD 6

Discover PC and Windows Basics

 

CD 7

Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing v15

 

CD 8

Home Depot home Improvement

 

CD 9

The Women's Day Cookbook

 

CD 10

Grolier's 2003 Encyclopedia

 

CD 11

Monopoly Casino

 

CD 12

NASCAR Heat

 

CD 13

Atari Anniversary Ed

 

CD 14

Ulead My Scrapbook

 

CD 15

Win DVD

 

CD 16

Lotus Smart Suite - Quatro Pro, 1-2-3, Approach

 

CD 17

DVD Burning Software

 

CD 18

DV Camera Driver and Photo Editing software

 

CD 19

Lexmark Driver installation

 

CD 20

Keyboard Driver installation

 

CD 21

Motherboard Driver installation

 

CD22

Video Professor - Learn XP

 

It's around $1500.00 for the entire package. Looks like the software might already be worth close to that, if not more.

 

I haven't decided on it yet, but gee it looks good.

 

'Rekd teh "The Women's Day Cookbook", I'm so happy!

[Bullines]

quote:

---

and lots of what they claim to be full (not demo/trialware) software packages.. (Lol, notice OpenOffice)

---

Nothing wrong with OpenOffice. The CD version of it shouldn't retail for more than $10.

 

Know the mobo yet?

[Rekd™]

I use OpenOffice download version. I love it!

 

I can't find the mobo. Their tech support is a bit less than adiquate.

 

'Rekd

[Rekd™]

Wait, here we go..

 

ECS P4VMM2 Motherboard

 

'Rekd

[Bullines]

All of ECS's P4VMM2 mobos have onboard S3 video, AFAIK. They must be including one of the Xabre cards. If it were me, I'd ask them to drop the price and leave out the Xabre card. Then use the money saved to get a GeForce FX 5600 (or better if the money's there).

[Rekd™]

I was afraid of that. I remember my very first comp, a Packard Bell P60. On board sound. They said I could upgrade it when I bought it. So when I went to upgrade 3 months later, they said I couldn't upgrade it because it was propriatary. "Really?" I said. "Then you've got 2 choices.. a FULL refund, or a trade-in on your newest model" (P90). They gave me the new model and I haven't bought a PB since. Or anything propriatery for that matter.

 

Let this be a lesson to me.

 

Thanks for the insight Bullines, my quest continues.

 

'Rekd

[Bullines]

Onboard sound has improved over the years, though. You could easily disable it in the BIOS and get an Audigy or something.

[Rekd™]

What about the onboard video?

[Bullines]

If the mobo has an AGP slot, then you should be able to disable the onboard video.

[Mike Mattera - TFM]

Most of the system that say SiS video w/ 64 MB of memory are on the mother board and we all know how bad that can be with acheiving "real" performance. Make Sure It Has A Real AGP slot.

 

Mike Mattera

[hansdeberlin]

Stay away from ATI Radeon 9600. I have spent two weeks on the phone with customer support.

It still crashes my computer.

[Richard Thomas - Mastercam UK]

hansdeberlin,

 

You may have done a search on this site, or maybe you haven't but there is a known issue with ATI cards crashing Mastercam when you go to save your MC9 file (you don't mention if this is happening to you, but it wouldn't surprise me). If this is your problem, try making sure that your shading is off when you save a file, or disable the option to "save thumbnail image with geometry".

 

I might be barking up the wrong tree, but I hope this helps.

 

Rich

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

ATI - Drugs.....

JUST SAY NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Why Mastercampeople continue to buy these things is beyond me. How long have we been having this discussion?

[Bullines]

Keep in mind that when X is released, the whole "ATI and Mastercam" issue will likely be moot.