Graphics cards

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This page is for detailing compatibility issues that certain graphics cards have with Second Life. Officially, Linden Lab only supports what's listed on our System Requirements & Recommendations and above. However, we understand some Residents want to run SL on unsupported configurations — your results may vary, but sharing info will give you a better idea of what to expect.

Buying graphics cards

A great graphics card may be

Drivers

We highly recommend updating to the newest stable versions:

More info.

Ideally, we want SL to run and not crash on any graphics card that supports OpenGL Version 1.2 or later. Realistically, we can only support the latest version of drivers right now.

Driver issues

Sometimes you may get an error message upon starting Second Life that claims your drivers are out of date or unsupported. First download the latest drivers for your graphics card and install them. If you have recently done so and have the latest drivers, try reinstalling them, as sometimes a broken install occurs silently (especially with NVIDIA drivers) and a reinstall clears up the problem.

Drivers on Mac OS X

It's often assumed that Mac OS X does not use graphics card drivers, and it's certainly true that separate graphics card "updates" and "drivers" cannot be downloaded for the Mac.

However, OS X certainly does use graphics card drivers, but incorporates them into the OS itself. With the Mac, Apple integrates the hardware and software more closely than with Windows. The advantage: problems arise only rarely. The disadvantage: Macs are generally much less upgradeable with respect to their graphics capabilities.

Does this mean that any problems that emerge cannot be resolved? Not quite: on the occasions when a graphics driver has to be updated for Mac, it will be incorporated into the next Software Update release for the OS itself. So if you keep yourself up-to-date with these, then driver upgrades will take care of themselves.

Related resources

  • Public Issue Tracker - We use this to help us identify bugs to be fixed. Search for terms like the model of your graphics card (e.g., "X1600" or "GeForce") or related keywords (e.g., "invisible AND avatar"). You can also report a new issue and discuss it with fellow Residents.

You can also contact our Support. Remember that specific details, and solid reproductions when there are bugs help us help you.

Personal experiences

If you're having problems with a specific graphics card and/or driver version, please share your details here.

Known Driver Status

OS Hardware Driver Version Status Workaround Related Bug
Win XP Nvidia GO series 77.24, 6/20/2005 Crashes after a few minutes Upgrade Drivers to 84.63, 7/5/2006 or turn of Vertex Buffer Objects
Win XP Nvidia GO series 84.63, 7/5/2006 Works great
Win XP Nvidia Desktop cards 91.47, 9/14/2006 Fullbright objects will flicker rainbow colors Upgrade Drivers to 93.71, http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_93.71.html
Win XP Nvidia Desktop cards 93.71, 11/2/2006 Works great
Win XP Nvidia Desktop cards 169.21, 1/28/2008 Works great with latest version of WindLight r78760
Win XP ATI Catalyst(R) 7.4 Works great
Win XP ATI Catalyst(R) 7.6 Issue with dual monitors Upgraded from 7.4 to 7.6. I had dual monitors setup with DVI being the primary. SL client would not load. Workaround is to make VGA monitor primary, then SL will load on DVI monitor.
Win XP ATI Catalyst(R) 8.1 With WindLight r78760 works relatively well except avatar hardware skinning is turned off for higher end Radeon 2xxx and 3xxx cards. 8.2 will address the issue and we will be able to turn avatar skinning back on
Vista Nvidia driver bundled with vista Fullbright objects will flicker rainbow colors Does updating the driver fix this? http://www.nvidia.com/object/winvista_x86_158.18.html
Vista Nvidia 97.42 Works great
Vista Nvidia 158.18, 5/2/2007 unknown
Vista Nvidia 162.22, 7/27/2007 Unsupported Hardware/Old Drivers error
Vista Nvidia Desktop cards 169.21, 1/28/2008 Works great with latest version of WindLight r78760
Vista ATI Catalyst(R) 7.4 Works great
Vista ATI Catalyst(R) 8.1 With WindLight r78760 works relatively well except avatar hardware skinning is turned off for higher end Radeon 2xxx and 3xxx cards. 8.2 will address the issue and we will be able to turn avatar skinning back on
Linux Ubuntu 7.10 Nvidia 7300 GT 512 MB RAM Nvidia proprietary driver from Ubuntu Multiverse repository Works apparently great