Re: OT - Video card opinions
On Sun, Apr 5, 2009 at 05:11, M. Lewis <cajun@cajuninc.com> wrote:
>
> I've been a long time user of Nvidia for my video cards. I'm doing some
> upgrades to my machine and am considering a pair of Radeon HD 4830s in
> crossfire mode. I'm stuck between that or sticking with Nvidia and going for
> a GeForce 9800GT. My understanding is the combination of the two Radeon's in
> crossfire will blow away the Nvidia performance wise.
Well, yes in 3d mode, when used for games (or GPGPU). For 2d stuff, I don't
think there is much difference, and for basic 3d (such as compiz fusion), *any*
Radeon 4xxx or GeForce 9xxx series will be more than enough.
> I'd like to know any opinions concerning this choice and also are there any
> configuration issues with the pair of Radeon cards in X.
I actually have no idea what the crossfire situation on Linux is.
For the Nvidia, you have the 2d FOSS driver or the 3d binary driver, and
that will not change for some time.
For ATI, you have working 2d from the FOSS RadeonHD driver, and 3d
from the binary driver. However, 3d support is coming along quite well
in RadeonHD, it might be ready in 6 months or so.
These days, the binary ati driver is better than the binary nvidia driver.
If I was going to get a fairly powerful video card right now, I would get
an r500 series Radeon (Radeon 1xxx), and use the Radeon driver for
2d and 3d.
If I was going to wait, I would wait till q3/q4 of this year and assess the
driver situation for the Radeon 4xxx series.
Cheers,
Kelly Clowers
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