Re: nVidia vs. ATI graphics card for fedora

[Robin Laing <Robin Laing drdc-rddc gc ca>]

Kevin J. Cummings wrote:
> Jack Howarth wrote:
> >    I haven't seen this issue mentioned yet, but ATI has just depreciated
> > all hardware older than the HD series of cards as of the 9.3 release...
> >
> > http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/linux/legacy/Pages/radeon_linux.aspx?type=2.4.1&product=2.4.1.3.9&lang=English 
> >
> >
> > This means 9.4 and beyond will no longer promise support for these cards
> > (although it may still work for a short while). I should have saw this 
> > coming
> > when I couldn't get 9.2 or 9.3 to produce video on my X1650 under 
> > x86_64 Fedora 10.
>
> Oh, I love it, my 2 year old laptop now has a deprecated video card (you 
> *did* mean deprecated, didn't you?)  How do you buy a new video card for 
> your laptop?????  Its not as easy as for your desktop....
>
> This is just another attempt by ATI to sell more (current) hardware.
>
> > We are all stuck with the free drivers now.
>
> Which are not as good as the current proprietary drivers in *every* 
> feature supported.  If I want 3D and video and GL, the open drivers 
> don't do all 3 just yet (do they?)  The last time I tried them they didn't.
>
> >                 Jack

nVidia did this and you can still get the old proprietary driver as an 
RPM when a new kernel comes out so it isn't a big problem.

I have had this happen in the past with ATI and Xfree when they dropped 
support for the Mach 64 cards.  Now that was not pleasant.

So, they should still be useable for a few more years.

Getting a new video card for a desktop can be problematic as well if you 
are stuck with an older AGP port.

--
Robin Laing