Cheaper Video Cards Compared

An unnamed correspondent writes "For those of you that can't afford to spend $600 on a video card (like everyone!) there's a really thorough comparison of different the best 10 value (meaning $150) 3D graphics cards, using chips from Matrox, NVIDIA, 3dfx and ATI. The authors show off benchmarks on an AMD Duron 700 for 3D and then look at DVD as well as 2D."

Comments

Radeon a "value" card?

[Temporal]

On PriceWatch, the GeForce 2 is selling for $169, just $10 more than the ATI Radeon DDR, and $30 more than the Radeon SDR. I don't think the Radeon DDR fits in the "value" range, and the SDR is arguable.

Last I checked, the GeForce 2 is the second fastest card on the market, right behind the GeForce 2 Ultra (which is still insanely expensive).

Oh, and the Voodoo 5 goes for $234. Go figure.

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You pansy! I have... NO VIDEO CARD in my Linux box

[SlushDot]

It's my main server sitting on the cable modem and firewall to my internal LAN, why does it need a video card at all? That just wastes a slot that can have another ethernet card in it.

I've only got 5 slots in my machine. One has a sound card, the other 4 slots have network cards. eth0=static IP #1, eth1=static IP#2, eth2=DHCP addr, eth3=Internal LAN.

If I need a colsole for administration, I can ssh or remote X display one. I can even use a serial port in an emergency.

Sure, I installed a video card to set up the box. After Linux was running, the card was gone.

Video cards are for the weak!

High End Boards Overrated

[MousePotato]

I have worked in places where the 'average' system would have Elsa's and Oxy's in them for CAD and Rendering/Animation work on real nice 21" monitors. The high end market is way overrated IMHO. Before you flame me hear me out: Consider this the average user in a production environment sets the resolution at what? (drumroll:1024x768x24b) Why is this? I am not sure. Maybe they never figured out that you can change the size of the fonts as they are drawn to the screen, whatever. I am not trying to be funny but when I walk by workstations and see machines set like that I go nuts. Just seems like mad money wasted. Personally I prefer to view at 1600x1400 or better if the monitor can handle it, possibly giving up a little color depth for the higher res. Most of the boards in the 'low end' can handle 1024x's just fine and cost a fraction of that GMX with 96megs on it that your boss lays out 2 grand for. An Oxy (just an example though I really, really like 'em) is capable of much higher res and greater color depth but it won't speed up your render times considering there is not much talkback between your card and the cpu. Screen refresh is indeed faster. Antialiasing finer. A kick ass CAD jockey or modeler will benefit from the combination of a good monitor and card but does it really justify the expense? Take that extra few hundred dollars and throw it into memory. You will benefit much more performance wise. Heck, for the price difference you could build additional boxen for your render farm. Take an office with 30 workstations, put in a good 'low-end' board in say 28 of them and you can build a nice sized farm just with the money saved.

So ... what about affordable Linux gaming?

[miniver]

I'm only interested in Linux gaming, and I'm not a super-fast speed-freak gamer, and I don't have an infinite budget. These cards look nice, but which ones have Linux drivers, and what versions of XFree86 do they support?

I was pretty happy with my Matrox Millenium G200 card until I tried to load Q3 Arena ... figuring out which drivers to load where and how to configure them was more effort than I could afford. I would like to replace it, but I want something that works with XFree86 3.3.6 and Q3A. Recommendations?

Are you moderating this down because you disagree with it,

Marketing vs. Necessity

[Poligraf]

Manufacturers probably hate such reviews since they get most of their profits from the latest and greatest hardware. So, everything that tells smart shoppers to avoid wasting money and be happy with a bit older hardware that is still perfectly capable deprives them from the stupidity tax enthusiasts and ignorants pay (I know that some folks MUST have this hardware for CAD, but they are minority and usually don't pick the tab themselves, leaving it to their employer).