On Tuesday July 16 2002 03:40 am, Stormjumper wrote:
> RE: [newbie] sound problemsam about to go out and buy a graphic card
> to replace my very old Nvidia TNT2
>
> just wondering, in light of the fierce recent debate on
> open/close source drivers,
> where graphic chipsets are concerned,
> what are the available options with the following requirements
>
> 1. 3d accelerated open source drivers
> 2. decent performance
>
> thanks for any advice
Probly there's only two that come close, ATI and Matrox.
Matrox might not qualify for your number 2., 3d accel. Linux reports on
ATI are varied and range from 'lot'sa problems' to 'works great'. Also
the very latest cards, either ATI or Matrox aren't (or aren't fully)
supported yet. An old 3DFX Voodoo3 or better meets both your
requirements. I wish I'd never given away my old V3. Unfortunately,
3DFX got swallowed up by nVidia some time ago. XFree still has
excellent open source 2d/3d drivers for 3DFX cards tho.
Civileme wrote in a recent newbie post:
"Well, I have treasured Voodoo cards for my 3D. I surplus old test
machines with other cards installed and hold the 3dfx. NVIdia drivers
_are_ unstable and have been known to cause filesystem corruption. Yes,
I have tested this, extensively. Only the XFree drivers, which do not
provide 3D accel, seem to work all the time. Incidentally, NVidia
cannot make their drivers open-source because there were others involved
in the development, notably SGI and Microsoft, and NVidia's huge success
is due largely to their "special relationship with Microsoft" vis-a-vis
the XBox. So they are simply a fiefdom on the edge of empire, and
probably feel at times like a flea on an elephant's back."
Same things I say all the time.... but y'all don't argue with him ;>
I use a GEF2, mainly 'cause it's the very best card for the one and only
app I keep Windoze around to run, M$ Flight Sim 2000, nVidia's latest
30.30 W9x driver. But I use it with Linux with the XFree open source
driver, never a problem. So, IMO, if you can get by without 3d accel
in Linux, get a GeForce. You might have to anyhow, get by without 3d
accel that is, since M$ recently bought SGI's openGL patents, and they
could tell nVidia to quit supporting Linux with closed source drivers.
'Course, that's always been a looming threat, even before the SGI
accquisition (ie, Civileme's comments, "special relationship with
Microsoft" ). The XFree 2d drivers will survive in any case. nVidia had
no part in these, so you won't be completely orphaned.
--
Tom Brinkman Corpus Christi, Texas
Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft?
Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
