Slashdot Mirror
Radeon 8500/GeForce3 Ti500 comparison
RainDog writes: "The Tech Report has put together a pretty detailed comparison of ATI's Radeon 8500 and NVIDIA's GeForce3 Titanium 500 graphics parts. Despite being incredibly thorough, the review is also a pretty entertaining read. Definitely the best comparison of these cards I've seen to date."
Also remember that the closed source NVidia drivers are far more advanced than the Open Source Raedon ones, and include options like Full Screen Anti-aliasing, Twinview with TVout or a second Monitor, etc etc. THe NVidia linux drivers use the same core as the windows NVidia drivers (the benefit of theur Unified Driver Model), so the latest linux drivers are usually as fast or faster than the latest windows detenators.
I've been looking to buy a new system (for running
Linux and the BSDs), but the choice of video card
is a sticking point...
Nvidia cards are supported via binary drivers -
there is also an open-source 2D driver for XF86 4.1.0. The kernel driver is open source. My fear here is that I wont be able to follow development kernels closely, as the drivers will break. Ditto for changes to Glibc. OTOH, the
Nvidia drivers offer full support, including 3D w/ hardware T+L. The 2D hardware on Geforces have been lacking (i.e. blurry at higher resolutions).
As for Ati cards: XF86 4.1.0 supports up to Radeon 64 DDR/VIVO.
The CVS of XF86 supports that plus Radeon 7500 (2D+3D), and Radeon 8500 (2D only). None of the XF86 release or CVS supports hardware T+L, and probably never will (that support is complicated to write, and ATI isnt paying Precision Insight
anymore). Radeon 64DDR is a safe choice, but not the fastest. Very good 2D clarity at hi resolutions.
Matrox G400max/450 are supported pretty well - slower than Radeons, but they work. Excellent 2D quality. G550 is supported in CVS.
PowerVR Kyro 1+2 drivers are being worked on by the company - they say they'll be released in February. They havent decided wether they'll be open source or not.
OpenGL performance and features should improve when the Mesa 4.x sources are folded into the main XF86 tree.
Xig, the makers of the commercial Accelerated X, now have released Summit, with improved 3D support. The fastest card they support now is the Radeon 7500, with full T+L, full accleration, support for pretty much everything the card can do except for the TV/VIVO hardware. The only problem here is that they, bare minimum, cost $79, and the software key you buy is good for EXACTLY ONE driver, on EXACTLY ONE computer. I.e. if you change cards, or even your hardware appreciably, you're screwed.
Bottom line: if you want open source drivers: Radeon 7500 (risky, probably havent got all the bugs worked out yet, but fastest open source performance), Radeon 64 (stable), or Matrox G400/450/550 -- one of these together with the XFree86 CVS tree, compiling it yourself.