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.
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 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > 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 [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.dooglio.net _______________________________________________ vox-tech mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.lugod.org/mailman/listinfo/vox-tech
