Forget about this topic its practically out of date and shadows now display properly for recent ATI cards too as of Subvein 0.6
I will also no longer be updating this thread any more so please stop posting here

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So I was wondering what ATI and nVidia cards do and dont work 100% with subvein, ie. all graphics options are arent locked out because you need to "update your drivers" and the game runs at a high framerate (50+).

I thought this could be a good guide to help players new and old decide what series/model card they should get to get the most out of their subvein experience.

This will be organised into a few sections of increasing compatibility with Subvein. If you have a card to add to the list just post a comment here including the card manufacturer* (Sapphire, XFX, ASUS, Gigabyte, etc.) and Card name (such as Nvidia GeForce 9800) and preferably the amount of memory (256MB, 512MB and 1GB are the most common amounts still in use today) in case there are any inconsistencies and as of conveinience for those wishing to select a new card based off of this list.

Please also add which driver that it works and/or doesnt work on. I only ask for this because for my graphics card , the XFX ATI Radeon HD5770, works better generally but more specifically with the latest DX9 games with the driver that windows installs when you first install it than the official driver from ATI website itself or the disk.


"Graphics settings" doesnt refer to the screen aspect ratio.
If you think i should refine these headings and their 'requirements' , just leave a comment.
The different headings and their decriptions:

OPTIMUM - Subvein runs optimally in fullscreen with all graphics effects enabled (especially Shadows as they give the player a great detail of feedback and immersion) and at maximum with at least 50fps on average.

GOOD - Subvein runs pretty smoothly with most graphics settings on (very, VERY preferably Shadows ON as they give the player a great detail of feedback and immersion) with an average framerate of about 35 or greater.

OKAY - Subvein has a number of graphics settings on with framerates generally ranging from 15 to 30.

POOR - Subvein basically has a limited number of graphics settings on (but at least 1 or 2) and the highest it ever really gets is about 20fps but usually hangs around 7 to 15

NOT REALLY WORTH PLAYING - Less than POOR but can still technically play the game without very serious gameplay problems. Such as the player glitching all over the place uncontrollably when you move or fire your weapon.

COMPLETELY UNPLAYABLE - subvein refuses to start up and errors out at all or has nasty graphical glitches such at everything being horrid squares or just being completely one colour/nothing is distinguishable.

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This is the Current list so far:
OPTIMUM
-> Laptop Nvidia GeForce 8600M GS (tested on Subvein v0.54 only)
-> NVIDIA GeForce 9200M GE
-> NVIDIA GTX 275
-> GAINWARD nvidia geforce 8600 GT 1GB
-> NVIDIA GeForce 9700M GTS
-> Geforce 8600 GT
-> Geforce 7600 GT
-> Geforce 7400 GO
->

GOOD
-> XFX ATI Radeon HD5770 1GB
Drivers from windows 7 and not the ATI site seem to not have artifacting issues in recent DX9 games for LungJuice (Win 7 Pro x64), can someone else please confirm.
-> Whatever new ATI card Kwiftee has
Which has the same problems as the above XFX ATI Radeon HD5770 1GB
->


OKAY
-> Laptop Integrated Intel GMA 950
->

POOR
->

NOT REALLY WORTH PLAYING
->

COMPLETELY UNPLAYABLE
-> Entire GeForce MX series are completely unplayable - UNKNOWN WHY
->

add to optimum NVIDIA GeForce 9200M GE
GeForce MX series are completely unplayable

NVIDIA GTX 275 works perfectly.

GAINWARD nvidia geforce 8600 GT 1024
IDK

add to optimum NVIDIA GeForce 9700M GTS

lol "optimum"

"optimum video cards for subvein: GeForce 8600M GS, 8600 GT, 9200M, 9700M GTS,..."
*hysteric laugh, run away in panic*

I started to play subvein, because it runs on older notebook with integrated Intel GMA 950. Fps is good on most maps with all effects off.

I do not need effects, I want pure action.

Ill put that under OKAY.

Also im going to make having Shadows ON a requirement for both GOO and OPTIMUM because they are so bloody useful at giving you feedback.

I REALLY want a new motherbaord with one of those Logic HYDRA 200 chips in it.

Oh and could someone PM me a link to a guide that gives a rough translation of the different cards in Nvidia's newly 2 batches of rebranded cards, i.e. Geforce 7xxx, 8xxx, 9xxx series to the 2xx, 3xx to the 4xx series, please?

Optimum:
Geforce 8600 GT
Geforce 7600 GT
Geforce 7400 GO

Optimum:
Geforce 8600 GT
Geforce 7600 GT
Geforce 7400 GO

*What is wrong with this guy?*

These cards can handle games like Crysis, Prototype, Far Cry 2, Mirrors Edge on ultra-high settings (with enough RAM ofc). Subvein doesnt require such hardware! Look at the picture! Even very old video cards can handle it on minimum settings without any problems (Laptop Integrated Intel GMA 950). System requirements for Subvein (2009) are not very far from sys.requirements for GTA2 (1999).

Imagine new Subvein player's face when he see "optimum" video cards for Subvein.

Remember the optimum is based around having all graphics settings on/maxed (when we get more stuff like that available) and having the best framerate you can get before it begins to get rudundant.

Besides cards like the Radeon 4350 512MB (which i forgot to add) should be optimum but currently arent because of stupid drivers (which disable the shadows for no good reason) and are basically cheap as chips and I recently purchased one for a client as part of a larger computer package for $37 (there were no discounts at all for buying everything at once in case you were wondering) and probably could have gotten it for a lower price than that if i had bothered to go several hours down to Brisbane (but fuck that shit, seriously).
Although i admit that for that price you have to have some knowledge on installing the card yourself to avoid the nasty bills the PC repair shops give you as well as know where to shop (if they have a nice and pretty show room with a number of products out on display and some computers and laptops on the top for you to look at you are likely going to be able to find better stuff cheaper elsewhere).

Also Australia is a bit of a dumping grounds for computer equipment and we basically get everything IT and entertainment industry related at least 50% dearer or a few years after the rest most of the time than the US, UK, a notable chunk of Eupore, etc.

I use currently Umart for my purchases because they are relatively local and you can take back most things back the the retail front.

Others i know of in Australia:
Umart.com.au (around QLD and Melbourne) - (Very limited selection of games)
MegaBuy
GameDude - (Brisbane as far as i know)

I'm too tired to finihs thinking out this post properly anymore... zzzz.....

Quick update to a corpse of a topic: When I get time I will probably go ahead and try to figure out if it is only 64 bit Win7s with newer ATI cards that have problems with shadows in Subvein by dual booting with Win 7, Vista and XP in both 64 and 32 bit flavour on my system 1 at a time and recording the results incl general frame rate at whatever maximum graphics settings it allows.

Though if anyone could tell me if their computer that has a new ATI card that does let shadows work please leave a reply with the OS name, 64 or 32 bit OS, the card model and the drivers you use.

I would like to know in particular though if you have a Win7 system with a recent ATI card and can get the shadows to work in subvein. If you can could you reply telling me the card model, drivers you are using and what bit architecture your OS is (x86 or x64 most likely).

Just tried the 5770 on an 32 bit windows 7 and it didnt work either.

I thought I managed to play with my Geforce 5500MX. Or then I remember the model number wrong.

ATI HD4350 requires driver updates, and yet WinXP didn't download the drivers automatically.

I'm not sure if this is server lag, or what, when a lot of people are near-by, there seems to be a lot of warping. Perhaps because of the 300ish ping. When a lot, I mean 10 players doing something crazy at once. I think it might be computer lag, but I don't know. In general, things have never lagged with a few people at once.

I don't know, but I'd say my Geforce 6600, 256mb runs the game "good"

you can see what your current framerate is at the top left of the screen (as well as games up and down stream bandwidth which is good for servers, thanks bencelot)

however if your ping is anything above the low 200's (in my experience) you will have warping issues which will be frustrating, especially when trying to jump over cars) and aside from messing with the graphics options (ill let someone else give you a guide on that as my computer runs this with ease) you might want to look at how much memory subvein uses in the task manager > processes > subvein.exe. it should probably be fine though.

on my computer bx_farm and Villa uses about 300 to 350mB and WAR_Supply uses about 400mB

I'm using NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS.

For SubVein 0.602:
Average FPS without ViewShadow: 100 (most maps, except WAR_Supply)
With Viewshadow: Half of whatever FPS I get in the map.

I turned off VSync btw. If I turn on Vsync, the highest FPS you can ever get is 60.

Would you consider that optimum?

For the record, you might as well leave Vsync on. Vsync simply caps your FPS to your monitor refresh rate (60Hz), so there's absolutely no point running it any faster than that. Keeping it at 60fps will simply save resources (not that it matters), but most importantly run it more stabley. But it seems your computer is fast enough for it not to really make a difference anyway.