[wellylug] video card choice

Alex Thomson Alex.Thomson at solnetsolutions.co.nz
Wed Jan 17 13:16:43 NZDT 2007


Richard Hector wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> Any suggestions on linux-friendly video cards?
> 
> I want free drivers, PCIe, for a new AMD 64-bit machine, and ability to
> do dual-head. Does anything exist?
> 
> My understanding, as one who pays little attention to hardware, is that:
> 
> ATI Radeon 92xx and below work fine, but aren't available for PCIe
> Newer ATI cards don't work very well under linux if at all
> nVidia cards work ok, but need binary drivers
> Intel chipsets work ok, but may need hackery for odd resolutions, and
> aren't available as separate cards, so are hard to use with AMD systems
> 
> How do other brands compare? SiS? Matrox? Others?
> 
> Have I missed anything obvious?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Richard
> 
> 
> 

Personally, I think nVidia is the way to go.  If you are not keen on 
using the binary drivers, the free nv drivers should be good enough for 
day-to-day use with dual monitors (no games/beryl obviously).  Shortly 
the open source Neuvuo drivers (I think I butchered the spelling there!) 
will be making their way into distros (FC7 is rumoured to be including 
this), which will offer at least basic 3d support for nvidia cards.  (I 
believe there is a similar project for AMD/ATI R500 series cards also, 
but doesn't seem to be as much excitment about this)

Also, the Matrox Millenium cards are are cheap alternative as the G550 
does dual screen nicely with the native linux drivers (still, I'd say 
future-proof yourself with the nvidia ones).

Don't have any experience with SiS, but am having an absolute nightmare 
with Linux and the Radeon 9600 on my HTPC, so really can't lend my 
support to AMD/ATI at all from my experience


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