begin R. Douglas Barbieri <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > 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. radeon followed by a letter (QE, VE, OEM, etc) = 1st gen
radeon followed by a number (8200, 7200, etc) = 2nd gen 2nd gen cards will supposedly be supported by X 4.2.*. 4.2.0 is released via cvs; i don't know the status of the ati drivers. i'll prolly find out when more people start to use 4.2.0. pete > 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 -- Enron..safe legal abortion..civil liberties..cancelling ICBM treaties.. What's worse? Screwing an intern or screwing an entire country? PGP Fingerprint: B9F1 6CF3 47C4 7CD8 D33E 70A9 A3B9 1945 67EA 951D _______________________________________________ vox-tech mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.lugod.org/mailman/listinfo/vox-tech
