What's a good video card?

[Robin Laing]

Bruno Wolff III wrote:
> On Mon, Feb 14, 2005 at 09:40:01 -0700,
>   Robin Laing <Robin.Laing at drdc-rddc.gc.ca> wrote:
> 
>>I had a 9600 and dumped it for nvidia.  ATI drivers are sub-par and 
>>didn't support 3D last year.  Do they now?  30 minutes (from time of 
>>purchase) to install and get my nvidia card running in 3D compared to 
>>over a month with ATI for no 3D.
> 
> 
> The problem is that ATI didn't release specs to open source driver writers
> for cards after the 9200.
> 
> Based on what I saw in the xorg 6.8.2 release notes, there is some 3d
> support for post 9200 cards, but I am not sure how complete it is and
> whether the support is based on specs from ATI or derived via
> reverse engineering.
> 
> 
>>Download the driver from nvidia and follow the instructions.  Repeat 
>>at kernel updates.  Look for the card that will fit your requirements.
> 
> 
> While this will work for many people, if you keep your computer long enough
> you will need to choose between updating your kernel or dumping the video
> card.
> 

This is not new.  Older cards are not supported in todays linux. 
Either by the kernel or by the X server.  One of the things that 
forced me to get a new computer.

At least nVIDIA is working towards linux support with driver 
development.  I believe on their WWW site I read that they have made a 
common code base for their cards and drivers between Windows and 
Linux.  I have also read about people that have bad support from ATI 
even in the Windows environment.

For me, the time wasted getting an ATI card to sort of work to getting 
an nVIDIA card to work was well worth the loss I took on the 9600. 
Days over minutes is my experience.  When I say 30 minutes from 
purchase to working it is the truth.  I looked at the time on my 
receipt after getting the card working and was shocked at how easy it 
was to get the nVIDIA card working.

If you look at the nVIDIA site, you will see that there are only 4 
drivers for video cards and that is based on BSD or type of processor. 
  There is no difference between cards.  How much easier can it get?

BTW, I couldn't get the RPM version to work on my computer.  No headache.
-- 
Robin Laing