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

[Peter Jay Salzman]

begin R. Douglas Barbieri <doug@dooglio.net> 
> 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.
 
radeon followed by a letter (QE, VE, OEM, etc) = 1st gen

radeon followed by a number (8200, 7200, etc) = 2nd gen

2nd gen cards will supposedly be supported by X 4.2.*.  4.2.0 is
released via cvs; i don't know the status of the ati drivers.  i'll
prolly find out when more people start to use 4.2.0.

pete


> 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
> 
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