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:

• Download Nvidia drivers
• Download ATI drivers

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Sometimes you may get an error message upon starting Second Life that claims your drivers are out of date or unsupported.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

• Knowledge Base - Search for words like "graphics". Relevant articles include:
  • What is a graphics card? Will mine work with Second Life? How do I tell which one I have?
  • I'm experiencing issues with Intel Extreme graphics
  • Typical Frame Rate Performance by Graphics Card/GPU

• 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.

• Official Linden Blog - You can search this too. Of recent particular interest is:
  • 1.14.0 Known Issues: Drivers, VBO, ATI X300/X600 notebooks, and other woes

• Technical Talk forums - The forums are searchable. This is Resident-to-Resident help; Lindens don't actively check here.

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