[wellylug] NVidia vs. ATI

[Jethro Carr]

On Wed, 2005-03-02 at 06:01, David Antliff wrote:
> On Tue, 1 Mar 2005, Jamie Dobbs wrote:
> > Which do people find performs better under Linux?
> > I'm currently running an ATI9600 and find that its performanace under
> > Linux is substantially below how it runs in Windows.
> > Are peoples experiences with the Nvidia cards the same, or is it only the
> > ATI cards that suffer like this?

My brother and I have the exact same nvidia geforce fx 5200 video card -
he runs windows xp & I run Linux.

I've found video performance under my system to be better than his,
however I do have a more powerfull cpu. But, if I removed that factor
I'd say it's at least equal.

> I have an nvidia-based Ti4200 (128MB) with the 'binary' drivers supplied 
> by Nvidia. Quite frankly, I have no issues with it under Linux. Twinview 
> works too. It's just great. I can play Unreal Tournament 2004, Neverwinter 
> Nights, and run RSS-GLX without problems. Whether it runs better in Linux 
> or Windows I don't know, but I don't have any problems in either.

> Oh, wait, yes I do - the last three versions of the Windows drivers cause 
> WinXP to lock up with a Blue Screen of Death at random intervals...

I thought that was just a windows feature? :-)

> Some people complain about the nvidia drivers "not being open source" but 
> they do a really good job of supporting their precompiled drivers and it's 
> really a non-issue for me.


I would also go with Nvidia, as they have actually bothered to write
drivers for linux AND they keep updating them. Too many companys ignore
the linux community & don't write drivers, or just write 1 or 2 versions
then drop it, so it becomes outdated with next kernel release - unless
you like the 2.2 kernel so much you can't bear to leave it.

Like David said, some people complain about them being binary only, and
yes, I can see where they're comming from, but Nvidia have done a really
good job with their binary drivers, and keep working on them. They also
included support for almost all their boards - even my 5 year old
desktop's TNT2 card is supported.

 Plus I can use their driver installer program to link their binarys to
my non-distro kernel, so it works on any kernel 2.4 or 2.6 kernel
around, not just a particular distro's one.


Also, on a slightly unrealated note, I play unreal tournament 2004, and
various windows games (half-life, pharaoh, jedi knight 2, sim city 4)
under winex, and whilst my brother's windows system has a new habit
(windows seems to develop them over time) of randomly quiting games, my
winex system emulates them perfectly. (the games, not the crashes). It
makes you think - windows games run better on linux. :-)



-- 
-- Jethro Carr

dodocaptain at paradise.net.nz
jethro.carr at jedolinux.com

http://www.jedolinux.com
http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/jethroc
http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/jethroc/cv.html

http://www.wellylug.org.nz
http://www.gtoyz.com
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