> > Regarding graphics cards, what about the Matrox Millenium series? > At least at one time, those were considered *the* best cards to have > for use with Linux. >
But times change, and Matrox froze their G450/G550 series of cards, and the later cards P650/P750/Paraheila, while better in many ways, lack any decent support in Linux. > However, I can't seem to find any information on 3D performance of > the g550; I know 3D has never been the reason to buy Matrox, but as > a non-gamer, I really don't care. I just want to be able to run the > OpenGL xscreensaver hacks without using CPU :) > > So does anyone out there have a Matrox g550, who can comment on it's > hardware 3D support? > To put it bluntly, the G450/G550 has minimal OpenGL hardware support. It is possible to play UnrealTournament at 800x600 with all the eye candy turned off on a G450 (which is actually a bit better in some respects than a G550), but it's not plesant. Also, none of the Matrox G series cards has sufficent onboard memory - 64 MB or more, nor due they have decent DMA engines to take advantage of AGP4X. If you want hardware support for OpenGL and only want Open Source drivers, then something like an Ati 9200 or Ati 9250 with 128 MB of main memory could be the proper choice. However, neither the Xorg Radeon driver, nor the Ati 8.8.x proprietary drivers will set the card in a 16x10 mode. They seem to work ok on the 4x3 modes, if you compile DRI into the kernel. If you require a card that works across the broadest range of operating conditions and 3D support, then you're stuck with Nvidia cards and drivers. Bob -- - -- [email protected] mailing list
