Best Supported Video Card For Linux/XFree86?

Crixus asks: "I'm about to build a dual CPU box on which to run Linux. Currently, what is the best supported video card under the latest Xfree86 releases. Which card(s) can I buy that would be obvious 'can't go wrong' choices?" This question pops in to the submissions bin quite a bit, even though we have discussed this issue several times in the past. However times change, and as the years pass the technologies change. What does this year offer in the way of compatible video cards for XFree and Linux? Those of you who have this question might also want to check out AnandTech's October Video Card Comparison.

Comments

Matrox

[Tom Rini]

It does depend a lot on what you're doing. If you
want a nice card for driving big monitors, and getting work done, along with the occasional 3D game, I'd say go with a Matrox G400. They're really nice, well supported, and for all the features that work now and will work someday (DVD), they're a good deal. I'd stay away from the 450s for now, just because they're still rather new, and from the reviews I've seen they only really beat the 400 in price. I've had a Millennium 1, 2, G100, G200 and now a G400 and all
have worked wonderfully under linux.

Be careful.

[tippergore]

Much to my chargrin, recently when slashdot linked to the 'cheap video card lineup', I bought an ATI Radeon for my linux workstation.

Don't do this, because there are no X drivers for it. Well, technically, there are drivers for it, but unfortunately some scumbag company called Xi Technologies is selling the thing for 80 bucks. EIGHTY BUCKS.

Third party Radeon drivers for linux are expected Q1 2001, but I suppose we shall see. Also, as an added bonus, ATI has a java applet on their page that happily crashes linux netscape after a couple of page views.

ATI may be willing to part with design specs for driver development, but I'm not exactly sure if that necessarily makes them linux friendly.

Be aware.

Re:Be careful.

[xoror]

Mesa has been updated to the 3.4 stable release.

A driver for ATI Radeon adapters has been added.

ATI driver support for multi-head configurations and non-Intel platforms has been improved.

I copied this piece out of the changelog for xfree 4.02 ...

Matrox G200, G400, not G450 yet

[Snowfox]

If you want a CRISP and sharp 2D display and reasonably fast 3D, go with the Matrox G200. You can get these used for next to nothing. I recently got an 8 meg AGP for $20.

The G400 is a step up. It has much better 3D performance than the G200. Matrox 3D is not industry top-of-the-line at current. But like the G200, the G400 has the sharpest display in the business. It also has dual head support, either on the card or as a cheap add-on option, depending on the model. Dual head is great if you can find a second, cheap monitor. Like the G200, you can find G400s cheap. I've seen them go for $60-80 for the 16 meg single head version.

The G450 is pretty much the G400, except that multi-head is the only version sold, and the second display shares the same fast RAMDAC as the first display, meaning you could run two very sharp displays in the 2048x1536 range. (The second display on the G400 multi-head loses significant clarity or refresh rate (your choice) above 1600x1200.) There are, however, some issues with drivers for the second head destabilizing the system. (Hopefully someone knows more about when this may be resolved?)

If you want FAST FAST FAST 3D above all else, are willing to sacrifice a bit of crispness at the higher resolutions, and aren't militant about demanding open source drivers, have a listen to the nvidia and ATI advocates. Both are excellent cards, though ATI's driver support is currently a little behind nvidia's.

Matrox Cards

[Greyfox]

Matrox cards seem to be the most thoroughly documented and therefore the least restrictive. If you need to rely on your manufacturer for binary-only drivers, you won't be able to upgrade to the kernel that will inevitably break it. I had the same problem with an intel card for a while and got stuck on an older 2.2 kernel until I upgraded to Xfree86 4.x. That's a real drag, let me tell you.

While I'd definitely go for a Geforce2 if they had open source drivers, I'll never buy one of their cards while I have to rely on them for a binary module. My Matrox G400 at home is very nice, and if I needed a little more I'd go for a G450. You won't get the FPS of the Geforce but you won't have to worry about Matrox deciding to stop supporting Linux either.

NVIDIA instability? Try disabling the NVidia AGP

[tjwhaynes]

The GeForce 2MX is pretty damn sweet under xfree86, although I believe my shady motherboards APM was causing crashes.

I had instability nightmares for ages with my TNT2U on an AMD 750 chipset mobo, until I turned off the NVidia AGP support... After about six hours of coding (and maybe a couple of sessions of Quake III Arena :-) ) I suddenly realized that it hadn't crashed at all. Since then I have had only two crashes in four months, which is pitiful for a Linux machine but much better than a crash every two hours or so before the change.

Scan your /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 file for the Section "Screen" ... EndSection. Add the following line

Options "NvAgp" "0"

It isn't guaranteed to fix every NVidia crash, but I've had reports from a few people that this fix has radically improved stability. Especially if you happen to have an Aureal Vortex soundcard in your system.

Cheers,

Toby Haynes