On Mon, 2002-12-16 at 17:59, Narfi Stefansson wrote: > Hi everybody. > I know this is a frequently asked question on this list, but I have a list of > candidates and I would like your recommendations for the best cards, using > only free drivers. > I have the following cards in mind: > > Leadtek WinFast A170 TH GeForce 4 MX 420 64MB AGP TV-Out > Asus V7100 Pro Pure MX400 64MB AGP > Gainward GeForce2 MX400 64MB AGP > ATI / Powercolor Radeon 9000 64MB DDR 250MHz TV/DVI > ATI Radeon 7500 Dual Head 64MB AGP
There are more choices out there now than ever before and it IS bewildering. What you need to sort things out is a roundup test of a bunch of boards with chipsets similar to what you are planning on getting. Here is the start of a graphics board roundup exam: http://www6.tomshardware.com/graphic/20020206/geforce4-07.html This gives you some basic specs and sets the stage for the tests. I would read the whole article if I were you. Leadtek and Gainward are good names. The ATI stuff is OK, but people have reported trouble getting the newly released Linux ATI drivers to work with different stuff. Also, the ATI cards have always been a little behind the performance of the Nvidia cards. Throw in the fact that native Linux drivers were not available until recently for the ATI cards and you see why they haven't made much headway. My recommendation, until something changes, is to stick with Nvidia. Now we get down to money vs performance. Since I was unable to find a roundup listing your exact card model numbers, we can just use the Tom's hardware roundup here for some approximations. Quake 3 benches are always a reliable indicator of how a graphics card is going to perform in general: http://www6.tomshardware.com/graphic/20020206/geforce4-12.html Note that the Geforce 440 MX edges out the Radeon 7500 in most benches in this article. This is a good indicator of *approximately* how well the Leadtek would perform in relation to the other cards. Leadtek is not a stranger brand to the tomshardware; they pay attention to the consumers, so you have probably got a winner in the Leadtek choice. If you are looking to spend less money, then I would search for roundup benchmarks comparing the Gainward and Asus MX400 cards, and then decide from there. Gainward and Asus are both very good names. Personally I lean towards Gainward for performance; but I wouldn't bank on that until I saw some numbers. > The radeon 9000 is a budget version, but still more expensive than the others, > so that's a minus. > My needs are simple, I'm only looking for a card that's good enough and > supports AGP 4x, uses free drivers and ... > > Above all, it musn't ever freeze, including when switching between X and the > virtual consoles. > > I don't do any gaming, so that's really not an issue. It's compatibility with > my motherboard, smoothness in 2-D use and stability that count. There are alot of people that don't do gaming, however that type of testing is the best comparator for judgement of performance vs price. Business software simply does not stress the hardware. If you wish for a best determining factor of the cards you have presented, then you should examine the benches for the whole story. If you are not concerned necessarily with value, and are mostly concerned with compatibility, then I would examine either the Asus or the Gainward closely. Further, if compatibility is the main issue, I would venture away from the ATI stuff for now. HTH, LX > Thanks, > > Narfi. -- ��������������������������������������������������� Kernel 2.4.18-6mdk Mandrake Linux 8.2 Enlightenment 0.16.5-11mdk Evolution 1.0.2-5mdk Registered Linux User #268899 http://counter.li.org/ ���������������������������������������������������
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