[plug] Video card of choice for linux

[Dennis Plester]

Phil wrote:

"I just wanted to get a sampling of the group's video card of choice for
Linux systems.
I am getting ready to upgrade my old ATI to a newer one capable of doing
some of the new Linux games.
Any suggestions for which brand seems to have the least compatibility
problems?"

If gaming is your thang, it can only be a Nvidia card. Yeah sure, you can
always shove in a Matrox if you want to support one of the original
providers of 3D graphics in Linux. You can try to find a Voodoo card if you
don't ever want to go back to the manufacturer for support. For performance
and bang for buck, it is very difficult to go past a Nvidia, particularly
the Geforce 2 MX, for just over $200.

Nvidia are currently the only video card chipset company who develops their
drivers for Windows and Linux from the same core code base. Others tend to
get the windows driver sorted, then do a port, often with a significant
performance hit. (Voodoo and Matrox cards typically produce approximately 20
% lower 3D accelerated framerates in Linux compared to Windows). Nvidia
develop a single generic source code driver to work their hardware, then
they take that and turn it into separate windows and Linux driver sets
virtually concurrently, with minimal performance differences between the two
OS's.

Even the latest doubled up ATI Radeon and Matrox MAX cards are not
consistently producing the same framerates as the Nvidia cards across the
range of applications and games over a wide range of resolutions.

I used to be a 3dfx/Voodoo freak, but they let their early success go to
their head, got lazy, and the rest is history. 3dfx RIP.

Last time I looked, tom's hardware www.tomshardware.com
<http://www.tomshardware.com>  had a series of comparison benchmarks for
video cards under SUSE. Apart from pitting the cards against each other,
they also show how each card compared against itself in Windows and Linux.
It's bad enough not being able to play all of your favourite games in Linux,
but it just adds insult to injury when you have to take a 20 % performance
hit as well.

Hope this helps Phil.

Dennis.