[NTLUG:Discuss] Re: pci-e and linux ( and radeon -vs- nvidia )

[Justin M. Forbes]

On Wed, Dec 22, 2004 at 07:31:20AM -0800, Bryan J. Smith wrote:
> On Wed, 2004-12-22 at 06:44, Justin M. Forbes wrote:
> 
> Unless you go with a FX5750 or higher, save your money and get an old
> GeForce4 Ti4200/4800.  It blows away the FX5200 and FX5500 at
> _everything_ (even new DX9/GL games like Doom3 where the FX5200 and
> FX5500 just don't have the horses for the features to make a
> difference), and for the underclocked FX5700"LE", you've gotta be
> running Doom3 with the settings jacked up to see any difference.
> 
Find me a PCI-Express Ti 4x00 and I will take a look.  Though I have a
6600GT in one system since it does component output for HDTV resolutions,
and I am quite happy with that.  Honestly, I dont think you will push any
of the cards much with Linux unless you are using Doom 3, and for that, I
would really say the 6600GT is a minimum.
 
> 
> The last DRI suppored ATI cards I noted were the R200 series (pre-Radeon
> 9500) like the Radeon 8500 and 9000 (not the 9100 or 9200 though).
> 
> Anything R300 or newer ain't gonna work with DRI.
> 
Actually, the 9200 is supported, as it was based on the 8500 chipset,
though the 8500 actually performs better.  Still, for PCI-Express you have
the x300 x600, x700 or if you are really lucky you might find an x8x0 card.
That puts you in their binary drivers though, good luck with those.

> > 4. Use an ATI card with their binary drivers (I have heard mixed results
> > here, and you would need to check and see if the x700 is supported before
> > you buy it).
> 
> Also note while the X700 and X800 are the cutting edge R400 series, the
> X300 and X600 are _not_.  A lot of people are buying the X300 cards for
> Windows and going "WTF"?
> 
>From a linux support standpoint, I would check on any of those.  ATI's
binary drivers are spotty at best, and not released nearly as often.  If
you want 64bit support, you are screwed at the moment.

Justin