[Cialug] graphics accelerator

[chris129 at cs.iastate.edu]

Nope.  I've heard of some things in the early stages, but of course getting open
hardware out is more difficult than open software.

Anyway, you're better off going Nvidia.  While they may be anti-FOSS, they're at
least intelligent developers and can actually write good drivers.
ATI can't even get their Windows drivers correct.


My understanding is that the reason 3d drivers are a nightmare is because often
the hardware on the cards is actually bad, ie incorrect, and the software is
used to fix that since by the time the issues are found they're half-way
through designing the next chip.
Up until now graphics drivers have just been so fast to throw up new features
and such that quality is left in the dust and made up for in the software.

But now there are going to be two major OS's dependent on working 3d drivers
(Vista and OS X), and there are only two companies competing with some pretty
loyal customers.  I also would say the game world has come into a more typical
growth rate; most kids are already playing too many games.

So it's my theory that within a decade the 3d graphics world will no longer
suck.  But for today, it still sucks.  But much like voting in partisan
politics you're stuck with a decision of the lesser of two evils; and that's
Nvidia.

Regardless of their FOSS stance, the company has gone through hoops to keep
respectable linux drivers.  And you've got to give them some credit for that.

But don't expect more than a month of straight runtime.


BTW, I'd recommend a card capable of dual monitor support.  Dual heads are
wonderful; unless you've already got a gigantic widescreen lcd.

Quoting "Daniel A. Ramaley" <daniel.ramaley at DRAKE.EDU>:

> My current primary computer at home is about 8 years old. I've decided 
> it is time to build a new one. Since i last built a machine it appears 
> the graphics card industry has gone through quite a shakedown, leaving 
> just ATI and nVidia. And as far as i can tell so far, both companies 
> are opposed to open source. Are there any modern graphics cards with 3D 
> acceleration that have open source drivers?
> 
> After the experience of running an ATI closed-source driver on my Dell 
> computer at work, i do not want any proprietary garbage on my home 
> machine. When using the proprietary driver on my work machine it is the 
> most unstable Linux box i've seen in years; about once a week i have to 
> SSH in and reboot it because the graphics card decides to wedge. There 
> is an open source driver that i also use. When using the open-source 
> drive i give up 3D acceleration and some 2D performance in exchange for 
> the usual rock-solid stability that open source offers. I'm just 
> wondering if there are any cards out there where such sacrifices do not 
> have to be made. It looks like there is a group trying to design a card 
> to work wonderfully with open source (Google "open-graphics" for info), 
> but it looks like they are a few years from production hardware, if 
> they ever get there.
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Dan Ramaley                            Dial Center 118, Drake University
> Network Programmer/Analyst             2407 Carpenter Ave
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