[lug] Video card recommendations

[Zan Lynx]

On Thu, 2003-01-30 at 16:00, Peter Hutnick wrote:
> Well, it's time to get a new video card.  I picked up a flat panel a few
> months ago and am ready to get a card to do it justice.
> 
> It is one of these:
> http://www.sel.sony.com/SEL/consumer/ss5/office/displaymonitors/lcdseries/sdm-m81_specs.shtml
> 
> Right now I'm driving it a 1024x768 with a 2 meg video card :-(
> 
> What I am looking for (in rough order of importance):
> 
> - Available
> - "good"* Free Linux drivers

Free as in Beer?  Nvidia provides Linux drivers at no charge but no
source.  Some people claim they are unstable, but I can say that I
rarely have problems with them.  The open source Nvidia drivers provide
nothing but 2D support, but they seem to do that well enough.  I think I
saw a Geforce 2 MX for $40 somewhere.

I believe pre-Parhelia Matrox cards have full open source 3D drivers. 
An older model like the G400 or G450 should be a bargain right now, and
everyone always says the video quality is great.

I think there are open source drivers for older versions of ATI cards. 
The 7500 series?


> - DVI-I output

Not every Nvidia, Matrox or ATI card has DVI outputs, but all three do
have models with DVI output.  Some of the Matrox cards added it with a
daughter-card.

> - Cheap

Since only the older (therefore cheaper) models of Matrox and ATI have
open source 3D support, you should be okay here.

> 
> "Nice to haves":
> 
> - NTSC out
> - "good"** 3d performance
> - other whiz-bang stuff like MPEG hardware (enc or de-enc)
> - NTSC in

I don't know if it has Linux support, but look up the ATI All-In-Wonder
series for TV in/out and MPEG.

> - Lots of ram that I can use for swap (seriously, see
> http://hedera.linuxnews.pl/_news/2002/09/03/_long/1445.html)

In my opinion this is a silly idea.  Buy yourself another RAM chip :-) 
Graphics RAM is very fast and expensive and it's a waste to use it as
swap.  The biggest (consumer) cards have only 128 MB and those cost
$400.
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