PDA

View Full Version : Need a new vid card...

Venesectrix
01-28-04, 03:09 PM
I need suggestions on what to buy.

I'm looking for a video card to replace my GeForce2 64MB DDR. I'm going to be mostly gaming, but I don't photoshop/do video editing, and I've got a relatively tight budget (less than US $150). I prefer nvidia, because of their drivers, but an ATI card with good linux drivers would also work (I dual boot XP and redhat). Also, I only need a VGA-out (for some reason my LCD monitor doesn't have DVI), and if possible I'd like to have 256MB DDR memory. So, any suggestions? What works for you guys?
CamH
01-28-04, 03:15 PM
Since you want to run Linux, I can't recommend an ATi card. Their drivers are great for Windows, but it's hard to get them going in Linux if you care about hardware acceleration.

You would probably be best off with a GeForce FX 5600 or 5700.

Also, the 256MB of memory does not help with performance on these cards.
kct2
01-28-04, 05:21 PM
ATI does post Linux drives on their website now, but I have no experience with their quality...are you saying the posted drivers don't work?

At $150 you are looking a 5700 (NON-ULTRA), or 9600XT. Both are a huge upgrade from a GF2mx.
JigPu
01-28-04, 05:38 PM
The posted drivers work fine, but in my (very n00b) experience they're a nightmare to set up. I think I've almost gotten hardware acceleration enabled (after a week of solid trying), I'm just missing a directory it's looking for and can't symlink the stupid thing :rolleyes:

If you want hardware acceleration in Linux, I'd stay away from ATi. It's too much of a hassle to get working.
JigPu
CamH
01-28-04, 06:28 PM
Yes, they are an absolute pain to get running. Once they're going, though, they're fine. With nVidia drivers, you can get the card going in less than an hour, though. Very painless.
kct2
01-28-04, 06:34 PM
Originally posted by CamH
Yes, they are an absolute pain to get running. Once they're going, though, they're fine. With nVidia drivers, you can get the card going in less than an hour, though. Very painless.

I don't really want to steal the thread - but - can anyone explain why there is such a difference? Is the installation procedure different? Are additional packages required for the ATI drivers; additional configuration steps? I was considering installing linux (again) but I haven't tried to use 3d acceleration in linux since I had my voodoo3, which wasn't that bad to setup.
CamH
01-28-04, 08:31 PM
The main problem I have is that they only work for certain versions of XFree86.

http://www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/readme0370.txt