Are nVidia closed source drivers still needed for 2 years old chipset?

[Dean S. Messing]

: dondi_2006 wrote:
: > Hello,
: > 
: > I have to install FC 8 on a computer with a nForce430/
: > GeForce6150 chipset.
: > 
: > I have printed out the instructions to install the nVidia drivers
: > but then I thought "maybe two years of reverse engineering were
: > enough to make the open source drivers suport 100% that chipset.
: > 
: > Is this the case? Are the closed source drivers available today from
: > http://www.nvidia.com/object/unix.html still needed to use under
: > fedora all the capabilities of a 2+ year old chipset?
: > 
: > Or is the current version of the nv driver enough?
: > 
: > Basically, do I still need today the closed source
: > drivers to get all those chips are capable of?
: > 
: > Thanks,
: > D.
: > 
: > 
: 
: Yes, you need the closed source driver if you want any hardware 3D 
: support. There is a project working on open source 3D for Nvidia, but 
: they aren't quite ready for prime time.

Even certain 2D applications seem to need the closed-source driver for
best results.  For example, ImageMagick's `animate' function (which
takes a sequence of individual images and plays the uncompressed data
at video rate) runs dog slow with the nv driver, but not the closed
source one. I've see other anomalies go away as well.

Does the open source driver have (the equivalent of) TwinView these
days?  I need TwinView to make my laptop drive an external projector/beamer.


Dean