What is best video card for linux

[shaggy112]

Hey,
I am currently running a redhat system with an k7 thunderbird 800. I currently have a CLabs savage4 card 32mb. I am wanting to upgrade to XFree86-4, but my card is terribly unsupported. What is the best card for linux.
Geforce, Radeon, or Voodoo5?

[pbharris]

i am quite pleased with NVidea - I have an TNT2 which is very good for Heavy Gear II, Heretic and a few others. The GeForce2 is supported but you need to get xfree86 4.01 by cvs. I have installed the NV drivers on RedHat, Slackware and Debian boxes.

[Daedra]

i would go for the Geforce 2 GTS, its screams under X 4.0.1 and you can get them for $152.00 at www.pricewatch.com (http://www.pricewatch.com) . i ordered one for a friend of mine the otherday and it was only 163 with shipping and everything

[bobarian]

Originally posted by shaggy112:
Hey,
I am currently running a redhat system with an k7 thunderbird 800. I currently have a CLabs savage4 card 32mb. I am wanting to upgrade to XFree86-4, but my card is terribly unsupported. What is the best card for linux.
Geforce, Radeon, or Voodoo5?

Geforce's drivers aren't standard on most distros, so if you get one you'll have to get the drivers and install them before you can use X. I'm not sure about the Voodoo5, but linux support for them has been traditionally good. Don't get a Radeon. Their driver support in Windows is pretty crappy, and ATI doesn't care about linux.

[bobarian]

Originally posted by shaggy112:
Hey,
I am currently running a redhat system with an k7 thunderbird 800. I currently have a CLabs savage4 card 32mb. I am wanting to upgrade to XFree86-4, but my card is terribly unsupported. What is the best card for linux.
Geforce, Radeon, or Voodoo5?

Geforce's drivers aren't standard on most distros, so if you get one you'll have to get the drivers and install them before you can use X. I'm not sure about the Voodoo5, but linux support for them has been traditionally good. Don't get a Radeon. Their driver support in Windows is pretty crappy, and ATI doesn't care about linux.

[Sweede]

Dont buy voodoo, they are stopping making graphic chips..

[ph34r]

I'd either get a top end GeForce or a Voodoo3-3500. If you don't mind waiting a bit for what looks like what will be excellent linux support the GeForce is it. The V3 at the moment is probably the easiest card to get going for 3d in Linux, and has amazing game support with X 3.3.5/6. Just about everthing else requires X 4, which can cause some games to not function. There are also tv in/out drivers available now for the V3-3500.

[This message has been edited by ph34r (edited 16 November 2000).]

[r1ccard0]

I have a ProphetII 64DDR, and on redhat 6.2, the Nvidia DDR generic driver doesn't work.

Does Xfee86 4.0.1 provide a generic driver ???

[Shad]

Actually most the people I hear from like the Radeon in Windows. The driver support is actually pretty good from ATI for linux. ATI hires Precision Insight to write them. 2d support is available from XFree86 4 CVS. 3d should be available in the next couple months.

Bob, sorry to hear you have had bad expeirences from ATI, but don't spew forth garbage. I would much rather wait a bit for a driver then go with a binary only solution. Which is better? The rigamarole that people go through to get a Nvidia card to run, or the ease I went through for my Rage Fury in MDK7.2? I simply clicked on 3d accel. Pretty simple, yes?

Shaggy, If you want 3d now, go wit the Voodoo. If you want awesome 2d (very sharp looking graphics in both 2d and 3d) and don't mind waiting a bit for drivers, go with the Radeon. If you want verification for this, go do a search on dri at sourceforge.

------------------
Just a Tuna in the Sea of Life

[forrest]

i personaly use a geforce, but i've never got 3d working. which is annoying. but, i've heard that the matrox g200, and g400's have the clearest image quality actually, and fast drivers for 2d stuff.

[bobarian]

Originally posted by Shad:
Actually most the people I hear from like the Radeon in Windows. The driver support is actually pretty good from ATI for linux. ATI hires Precision Insight to write them. 2d support is available from XFree86 4 CVS. 3d should be available in the next couple months.

Bob, sorry to hear you have had bad expeirences from ATI, but don't spew forth garbage. I would much rather wait a bit for a driver then go with a binary only solution. Which is better? The rigamarole that people go through to get a Nvidia card to run, or the ease I went through for my Rage Fury in MDK7.2? I simply clicked on 3d accel. Pretty simple, yes?




But you're forgetting something. ATI cards might be supported eventually, but it takes time. And for a newbie, getting the XFree86 CVS source and compiling would be time consuming and harrowing. And there are ATI card that are not supported yet, even though they are older than the Radeon (Rage 128 Pro, for example). It is true that you can get *almost* anything to work in linux over time, it would be better to go with a card that is traditionally supported better.

P.S. - No hard feelings, right? And, what was this about Precision Insight making Rage drivers?

[PLBlaze]

Bobarian,

It's not that hard to use CVS to get the sources and compile/install.If you read and follow the steps there's no way to go wrong.

I'd warn if you are on 56k though because the cvs source is rather big (about ~120mb) and take couple hours to download.The compilation is about 30-45 minutes on ~500mhz.

As for PI they are contracted by companies such as ATI,3dfx,Matrox to develop linux drivers.For cvs sources,info visit dri.sourceforge.net

On a side note the latest drop 4.01e or f from dri has some support for radeon from what i saw when i compiled the source.Hope this helps.

[Keshik]

What is CVS??

[PLBlaze]

Keshik,

Concurrent Version System is a system where multiple people/developers can work on source from one location and can access it from any computer that has net connection.TO learn more visit http://www.cvshome.org .Hope this helps.

[MXR4LIFE]

I have a ProphetII 64MB, G400 MAX, Fury 32MB plus a few more that I've tried on most of the popular distro's
They all have pluses and minuses and are going through constant refinement. I don't even have a favorite anymore http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/wink.gif And they all sucked at one time in Linux http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/smile.gif

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Gary

"If your still stock, ya' best stay on the porch";)

[David Anderson]

3DFX - not "Voodoo" - is not going to stop making graphics chips. They are going to stop making graphics boards. They'll be going back to what they used to do - licensing the chips out to 3rd parties.

------------------
David W. Anderson - dave@horrordvds.com
Webmaster - www.horrordvds.com (http://www.horrordvds.com)

[Shad]

Bobarian, My brother-in-law has a Rage Fury Pro. It works just as well as my Rage Fury. (He has a 300 mhz k6-2 while I have a 400 mhz k6-2; we get about the same fps.)

Framebuffer and I believe svga work for the Radeon right now without cvs.

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Just a Tuna in the Sea of Life

[samung]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by bobarian:
... And there are ATI card that are not supported yet, even though they are older than the Radeon (Rage 128 Pro, for example). It is true that you can get *almost* anything to work in linux over time, it would be better to go with a card that is traditionally supported better.

This isn't entirely true. Actually, I was using an Rage 128 Pro in X 3.3.6 (just upgraded to a geforce DDR). You just have to use the rage 128 X server. It works well. No special hacks or work arounds.

I would prefer a radeon over a geforce any day. Unfortunately, radeon 3d drivers are taking forever, so I'm stuck with the geforce until then.

jacob

[BigPenguin]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by samung:
[QUOTE]Originally posted by bobarian:
[b]... And there are ATI card that are not supported yet, even though they are older than the Radeon (Rage 128 Pro, for example). It is true that you can get *almost* anything to work in linux over time, it would be 0better to go with a card that is traditionally supported better.

What I would say is get a voodoo3 3000 from pricewatch - $63 + $10 = $73.

Then save the rest of your money. Watch to see if ATI does deliver Radeon drivers.

I'm worried about buying a nvIdia geforce family product because they say their driver is beta. Also and more importantly, they have a CLOSED SOURCE driver. This means that tomorrow nvIdia could get some mIcroShaft loving executive and they could say screw linux. Or if the company goes out of business, then what would you do? You'd have a expensive door stop/paper weight.

But why risk? Just buy the voodoo3 3000 with a safe future. If 3dfx says no to linux or the company dies, don't worry people already have the info to write future drivers.

I believe the matrox g400 also has a safe future since they're not crying about their "super secret driver design"(cough - nvIdia - cough).

Later, if the ATI Radeon driver is delivered, get one. Since ATI isn't using "a super secret driver design", they too are giving people info to write drivers.

[bobarian]

Originally posted by PLBlaze:
.


As for PI they are contracted by companies such as ATI,3dfx,Matrox to develop linux drivers.For cvs sources,info visit dri.sourceforge.net


When I first started into linux there was no support for my card, the ATI Rage 128 Pro. After much worrying and reinstalling (and XFree86 4.0.1) I finally got it to work. Finally. There were drivers or servers for the ATI rage 128 at the time, but they were developed by SuSe. This is why I hadn't heard of Precision Insight working on ATI drivers.