[wellylug] video card choice

[Brent Wood]

--- Richard Hector <richard at walnut.gen.nz> 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?

I've generally found the nvidia binary drivers work fine with a dual head card.
I know a couple of systems which used Matrox dual head cards.

So either should be OK for you.

I believe there is a techical difference between one dual head card & two
cards. I assume you are talking about a single dual head card?

The issue with nvidia (IMHO) is a philosophical one. The open source driver is
limited. The nvidia binary driver works well, & nvidia seems to take Linux
support seriously. They have said why they don't (or can't) release the driver
as open source. If you will only use open code, then you may have a problem,
but if your mind is as open as the code you may prefer, you may decide to use
use it anyway :-)

ATI also have binary drivers, but I've never had much success getting them to
work fully. Perhaps an indication of my lack of understanding of X Windows
rather than anything negative about ATI.

The open driver projects for nvidia & ATI are claiming to be close to effective
these days, even though 3D acceleration & such is unreliable.


My 02c anyway....


   Cheers,

      Brent Wood