Video card

[Bill Campbell]

On Sun, Aug 31, 2003, Robert E. Raymond wrote:
>On Sunday 31 August 2003 07:52 am, joel wrote:
>> Any recommendations for a video card. I play games occasionally.
>> Thanks,
>> Joel
>
>ATI makes some good ones, but it seems that their Linux 3D support always 
>comes late.  The Radeon 9600 is their most advanced with 3D linux support at 
>this point, though I'd say it's a better card for an occasional gamer than 
>the 9700 or the 9800 anyway.

We used to use ATI cards on all our Linux systems, but had to stop a year
or so ago because it became too much trouble to keep track of which drivers
(if any) to use.  ATI has a nasty habit of changing things on their boards
without notice figuring that if they include Windows drivers in the box,
that's all that's necessary.  Too frequently the only thing that changes on
the box is the last character of a product ID.

>NVidia does have the advantage of binary drivers for all of their cards, and 
>they're also really good for gaming.  Maybe the GeforceFX 5200 would be a 
>good one (and if you're not wanting to spend so much money, last year's 
>Geforce4 Ti4600 might be a good choice).

NVidia makes a point of backwards compatibility on their cards (e.g. new
cards will work with old drivers, but some new features may not be
supported).  I've never had a problem on Linux with any card with an NVidia
chipset so long as it has enough RAM to support the necessary resolutions
and color depth.

Bill
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