Linux Video Card Recomendations?

[raretech]

I've got my system all spec'd, save for the graphics card. I've tried to research this through google, but I'm having one helluva time figuring out which card to get.

I want to be sure to buy the fastest video card in the 300 dollar range that will work good under Linux with all modern 3d apps, including games with minimum tweaking(I have enough other things to tweak already). If anyone has a good recommendation, or can point me to a website that has a good RECENT review of graphics cards for Linux, I'd be really appreciative. It will be installed into a dual Opeteron 248, with Master2-FAR motherboard, and a gig of RAM, running Suse's 64 bit distro. Any suggestions?

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Short term, nVidia has the Linux lead. ATI had dedicated more resources to promoting it's Linux support which isn't bad, just not quite up to nVidia's standard. The thing is that once configured the ATI cards run pretty good. The Large Performance gulf between the nV and ATI cards won't be as noticeable in Linux since you will be using OGL for games, and there there is not the equivalent of DX9 issues yet, although with OGL 2.0 you may find that the ATI cards perform better later, with mostly OGL 1.5 and lower being used the performance difference if anything would favour nVidia.

So like I said in the intro, short term nV definitely the wiser/easier choice, but for long term things may change, so don't hold me to this recommendation longer than the next 3-6 mths.

Here's a recent interview from bit-tech.net with ATI reps., one of the questions specifically addresses Linux;

<A HREF="http://www.bit-tech.net/feature/27/" target="_new">http://www.bit-tech.net/feature/27/</A>


- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! <A HREF="http://www.redgreen.com" target="_new"><font color=green>RED</font color=green> <font color=red>GREEN</font color=red></A> GA to SK

 

[shadus]

I run several linux boxes, though none with a 300$ video card in them I would highly recommend nvidia personally, though I would suggest you go down to a TI4800SE or TI4600 and then when next gen comes out pick up one of those cards by either ati or nvidia.

Shadus

 

[raretech]

TheGreatGrapeApe,

Thanks for the reply. It helped.

 

[raretech]

Shadus,

After reading a little about the two versions you recommended, I think either one will do for now, so I'll be taking your advice. I haven't figured out which one exactly yet, but I will. Thanks for the reply.

 

[TKS]

Also, if you don't want to go high priced...you can get a GF2 GTS or GF3 TI 200/500 and those cards will rock quake just as much as any other card 😛 I run both of those in my linux boxes. I see no benefit to upgrading yet

----------
<b>It is always brave to say what everyone thinks. </b> <i>Georges Duhamel</i>

TKS

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

In this month's <A HREF="http://www.linuxjournal.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=NS-lj-issues/issue116&file=index" target="_new">Linux Journal</A>, they had a few issues configuring their Ultimate Lnux Box 2003 system with an nVidia card. The talked to an engineer at nVidia and got ti to work. But YOU won't be getting that kind of support. There is no link to the article, I read it at work yesterday. You'd need to get a hard copy to see the whole thing. The also ask the nV rep why no open source drivers.

Just an FYI, since everyone is under the assumption that there are no problems with nV and Linux. It appears all card makers (except surprisingly enough big Intel which provide open source drivers) have problems with Linux to some extent. Right now it appears that ATI doesn't have 64 bit support for linux though, which is why the authors went with the nVidia card.

Just a head's-up. I still think that nV is the way to go for now. All of what I said above still applies, just be sure to get all the info you can.


- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! <A HREF="http://www.redgreen.com" target="_new"><font color=green>RED</font color=green> <font color=red>GREEN</font color=red></A> GA to SK

 

[raretech]

Too late, I ordered a 4800. Thanks for the reply!

 

[raretech]

You know, I got my LJ in the mail the day after I started this thread. Just read the ultimate linux box article this morning.

I just priced a quadro FX 1000 card(the one used in the article) through pricewatch, around 800 bucks. OUCH.

And someone seemed surprised I wanted a 300 dollar card on a linux box. However, the FX 5900 comes in just at 290, perfect for my budget, and Nvidia has a 64 bit driver released as of September 23rd, probably newer than the one in the article. Now I'm trying to figure out if it's worth just paying the money I had budgeted and cancelling the TI. I'll probably do it.

As for the problems getting the Nvidia to work mentioned in the article, it seems it was due to a bios problem on the card. His card had an "engineering sample" version of the bios. I'm a hoping this was due to them using a preview card a vendor sent them and won't be something I'll get in a retail box version.

Thanks for your replies(and everyone else). I almost bought an ATI. Although I probably would have canceled the order today after reading the article, but as it is, it seems I made the right choice for my 64 system. I can't wait to put this system together. My last "bleeding edge" system was a, brace yourself, P-133 with a Matrox Millenium and the original 3dfx voodoo and a whopping 128mb of RAM. I also had a VFX1 headgear, too bad that tech didn't go anywhere in the consumer realm(for now anyways)... As you can probably guess, this was something like a decade ago. I've had faster systems since then, just hadn't bothered until now to put down the money for a cutting edge setup.

Although I saw it coming, part of me still can't believe that I'm seeing the day where AMD is the PC chip technology leader and Linux is the first to the table with an OS to take advantage of that technology and a leader in GPUs offering support for it. These are very good times to be a Linux user.