[vox-tech] Re: Video card...

[R. Douglas Barbieri]

Pete,

Thanks for all the info! Okay--what exactly is the "2nd generation" of 
Radeon cards? I'm finding some excellent prices on Radeon 7200 AGP 64MB 
(follow this ugly URL: 
http://tomshardware.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=511188/ut=d8666adf3e7d88ee 
)
Is the Radeon 7200 a second gen card? Will it work under Linux? The 
manufacturer site says that only Windows is supported.

BTW: I currently own a Voodoo3 3000--it's what I want to upgrade from.

On Wed, 6 Feb 2002, Peter Jay Salzman wrote:

> begin R. Douglas Barbieri <doug@dooglio.net> 
> > Hey Pete,
> > 
> > I had a blast on Saturday! Can't wait to do something like that again. 
> > Have you heard from Brad, by the way? Also--sorry I couldn't make it to 
> > the meeting last night.
>  
> yeah, he just emailed me a few hours ago, but i've been too busy to
> proces his email just yet.  will get to it in a bit.
> 
> > What 3D video card do you recommend for Linux? I am in the market for a 
> > new video card, and I'm not sure what the best is. I've heard that NVidia 
> > is good, but the manufacturer only releases binary drivers.
>  
> the good news is that the radeon is nearly as powerful as the nvidia
> cards.  the 2nd generation radeon cards are pretty much neck and neck.
> if you have windows, go with radeon all the way.  the radeons win most
> (but not all) of the high resolution, high colour benchmarks.
> 
> the bad news.  the 1st generation radeon linux drivers are so-so.  they
> don't do the card justice, although i have yet to see a game that taxes
> my radeon to the point where i wish i had a more powerful card.  the
> most graphic intensive game i have is heavy metal fakk2, and the card
> can pretty much handle anything the game throws at it on my athlon
> 1.4GHz.  however, the drivers are also beta.  there are a few graphics
> artifacts, although i only see them on heavy metal fakk2 and soldier of
> fortune.  there are some things in quake3, but i can't tell if they're
> artifacts or if they're supposed to be there.  in any event, they're
> pretty.   :-)
> 
> the version of X that we all have doesn't support the 2nd generation
> radeons.  X version 4.2.0 is slated to support them, though.
> 
> i can't in good faith recommend the radeon, but the least i can say is
> that i use radeons, and i'm happy with them.  i wouldn't use nvidia
> cards because of the binary only policy.  supposedly they can't release
> source for drivers because of pieces of opengl code that are licensed.
> but frankly, mesa is so good, i can't imagine why they'd be using OpenGL
> (note the caps).  to me, it absolutely stinks of not wanting to release
> driver details but also not wanting to look like the "bad guy".
> 
> in other words, i believe nvidia when they say their hands are tied.
> however, i also believe that they're very happy about not being able to
> release their code.
> 
> for 3d gaming, you also have the options of 3dfx, matrox and TNT.   the
> voodoo cards are a cheap option, but of course you'll be buying hardware
> of a defunct company.  it'll be ok for quake 3 most of the time, but
> you'll run into trouble when the number of players starts to get past 5.
> you'll also find games like heavy metal, heretic 2, fakk2 and soldier of
> fortune playable, but with annoying lags.  fast fire fights in soldier
> of fortune may be difficult.
> 
> ditto goes for matrox and TNT.
> 
> supposedly, the TNT drivers do hardware anisotropic filtering, but only
> for mips mapping.  for actual rendering, it uses trilinear filtering
> like everyone else.  i've used the TNT in gaming.  what i said about
> 3dfx pretty much applies for the TNT.
> 
> and the 3d matrox cards.
> 
> 
> so your choices are radeon and nvidia.  if you can live with not having
> the best and having minor difficulties here and there, go for the 1st
> generation radeon.  otherwise, if you want (minorly) superior
> performance and can live with non-free drivers, go with nvidia.
> 
> on the other hand, if you can wait a few months for everyone to start
> using X 4.2.0, you'd probably do good to see what happens with the 2nd
> generation radeons.  note that 4.2.0 is already available via cvs.  i
> don't know of any distros that have it packaged (i don't follow anyone
> but debian though).
> 
> btw, one thing about the binary only option.  in the unlikely event that
> linus torvalds has sex with nvidia's CEO's wife, and as a result nvidia
> stops linux support altogether, you may be stuck with a paperweight
> sooner or later.   if the interface of X changes (won't happen for minor
> revision changes like 4.1 -> 4.2 but may happen for major revision
> changes like 4.* -> 5.*) and nvidia doesn't release updated drivers, you
> are SOL.  like i said, this is unlikely, but may happen.
> 
> 
> hope this was helpful!
> 
> pete
> 
> cc'd to vox-tech for archivial purposes.
> 
> 

-- 
R. Douglas Barbieri
doug@dooglio.net
www.dooglio.net