video card: comments please?

[Mike A. Harris]

On Wed, 22 Oct 2003, Noah Silva [Mailing list] wrote:

>> > MSI GFX FX5200-TD128 AGP8X
>> > http://www.infocomputer.ca/Storefront/Item.asp?ItemID=1848
>> >
>> > Opinions, comments, please?
>>
>> I'm considering to buy a new graphics card, too. The MSI GFX is based on
>> a nvidea chip. Im read a lot about problems with nvidea drivers. May be
>> better to buy a ATI controller or a Matrox?
>
>The difference between an ATI and an NVIDIA is:
>If you install linux out of the box, using open source drivers, most
>Radeon cards are supported in 3D mode.

Correct.  Radeon 9100 and older are 3D supported.  Newer cards 
that have support at all, are 2D supported only.

>Most NVIDIA cards are not.

s/Most/All/ - there is no 3D acceleration support for any Nvidia 
hardware out of the box at all.  DRI does not have Nvidia 3D 
support.


>[very] Newer ATI cards, and all NVIDIA cards require the installation of
>binary only drivers (and that means you pretty much have to be on x86 ;<),
>so your options are less flexible, and you have installation and updating
>pain, but likely better performance.

Yep, for Radeon 9500 and newer hardware you require ATI's binary 
only drivers for 3D support.


-- 
Mike A. Harris     ftp://people.redhat.com/mharris
OS Systems Engineer - XFree86 maintainer - Red Hat