nVidia vs. ATI graphics card for fedora

[Bruno Wolff III]

On Tue, Apr 28, 2009 at 07:25:52 -0700,
  Globe Trotter <itsme_410 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I am ordering a souped-up workstation and I was wondering which graphics card is preferable for running fedora:
> 
> a 256 MB PCIe x16 nVidia NVS 290, Dual Monitor capable
> 
> or 
> 
> a 
> ATI Fire GL V3600 256MB, Dual Monitor DVI Capable 	  	ATI3600 	  	
> 
> What would you suggest? I do not need huge 3-d acceleration and stuff, but want it to work well. 

I am using a FireGL 3400 at work and it is working well with F11 (right now).
There have been points during this rawhide when it didn't, but it looks like
but KMS and 3D will be working for the release (as they are right now).

If you use an nVidia card you will need to use the propietary drivers to get
3D acceleration. The default drivers for nVidia are switching from nv to
nouveau in F11. My understanding is that this provides some improvement, but
you still only get 2D acceleration.

P.S. I have some bias in that I want to support companies like AMD/ATI and
Intel when they make the data for how to use their hardware public as
compared to companies like nVidia that don't. So while I have some scrounged
nVidia hardware around, when I actually buy new stuff I have been going
with ATI.