stepmania vid card

ZeroGT86 · Trick Member Joined: 26 Mar 2002

hey, i was wondering if any of you kno the least powerfull video card that will be able to run random movies on stepmania w/ no lag. I know that an old geforce 2 mx wont do it, would a geforce 4 mx do it? A radeon 9000 (or eqiv, ie 8500,9100,9200) should run it no prob, right?

hooded__paladin · Trick Member Joined: 10 Nov 2003

since just about any recent video card can do 2D at full speed, it doesn't really matter. What's more important is a fast processor to decode the video from its codec.

KillerJello · Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2004 5:27 pm Post subject:

for my stepmania system inside of an arcade cabinet, I am using a tweaked 32mb TNT2 with absolutely no problems or lag. The card is overclocked wuite a bit though...

ZeroGT86 · Trick Member Joined: 26 Mar 2002

whats are the other system specs?

KillerJello · Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2004 9:28 am Post subject:

It is a celeron 900 320mb of pc-133 memory, soundblaster 128, 10/100 ethernet (for easy loading of songs from my network, 20gb HD, and a gigabyte motherboard. Its not much of a system, but it runs stepmania really smooth. Its running win98 (I would rather run linux like most of my other computers in the house, but it gives me too many problems with stepmania, plus 98 runs quite fast) and then stepmania, set to load on windows boot. There is no other software installed, and win98 is stripped down and really tweaked.

Like i said, with a 32mb mildly overclocked tnt-2 it runs extremely smooth.

The whole system is mounted to the inside wall of the arcade cabinet (actual ddr cabinet, when i bought it, the mainboard was zapped, so i threw a pc in instead) the coinbox works, etc.

ZeroGT86 · Trick Member Joined: 26 Mar 2002

i was looking at someting much more powerfull than that, so its good something like that gives you no lag. I was probably gonna get an nforce 2 mb w/ the onboard geforce 4 (one with a tv out). i hav a spare 10gb hd lying around and the proc and ram shouldnt cost 2 much, epecially since i can get slower stuff for this computer. as far as the os, i was think'n bout linux, but in the past SM had to many issues, and getting a pad to work with it would probably be a nightmare so i was leaning towards a stripped down xp or 2k setup, with SM set to start on boot. hmm, now all i need is the cash...

KillerJello · Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2004 9:23 pm Post subject:

it even works smoothly on my AMD 900 with 512mb, and a 32mb onboard video (Prosavage ddr) I think it will pretty much run on anything halfway new with no lag.

ZOOT · Roxor Staff Joined: 06 Mar 2003

hooded__paladin · Trick Member Joined: 10 Nov 2003

In any case, it isn't pushing a heck of a lot of polygons. 5% as many polygons as recent games AT THE MOST (I'm thinking of tornado, dancing characters, backgrounds...) The processor is key: any 3D card can handle the polygons in stepmania, but not every processor can handle decoding movies AND running a game smoothly.

"That said, I can play movies just fine on my Geforce 2. You don't need a high-end card." Proved my point right there.