[Cialug] graphics accelerator

[Daniel A. Ramaley]

Thanks everyone for all the responses in this thread. I haven't decided 
what to acquire yet. In the Free Software / Open Source debate i fall 
more on the Free Software side, so i'd rather not have to use 
proprietary drivers. It sounds like if i do decide to go proprietary 
that nVidia is the better option.

I've recently read that Intel's graphics have open source drivers, but 
that the performance of Intel compared to nVidia or ATI is rather 
disappointing. And Intel graphics is usually built in to the 
motherboard; i was planning on building an AMD system which would be 
unlikely to use an Intel chipset.

This comment about the proprietary nVidia drivers worries me:
>But don't expect more than a month of straight runtime.
A month is certainly better than the ATI drivers in my work machine; 
that usually only lasts 4 or 5 days (i've gone back to the open-source 
ATI drivers which aren't nearly as fast, but are at least stable). But 
having to worry about stability every few weeks is still disappointing. 
I've grown used to only having to log out or reboot once or twice a 
year when the power goes out. Maybe i'll rethink how important decent 
graphics are in my as-yet hypothetical new machine.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dan Ramaley                            Dial Center 118, Drake University
Network Programmer/Analyst             2407 Carpenter Ave
+1 515 271-4540                        Des Moines IA 50311 USA