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Radeon 8500/GeForce3 Ti500 comparison

Posted by michael on from the xscreensaver-works-fine-with-either dept.

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."

6 of 140 comments (clear)

  1. Open Drivers by riggwelter · · Score: 5, Insightful

    For any Linux users looking at these cards, remember you can get 3D hardware acceleration on the Radeon with the Open Source drivers, you need to download the closed drivers for the NVidia card...

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    1. Re:Open Drivers by brunes69 · · Score: 5, Informative

      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.

    2. Re:Open Drivers by Junta · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Also note that if your nVidia has TV capture ability, it's not likely to have Video4Linux compatibility. ATI All-in-Wonder cards have historically had this ability, through the GATOS project.
      As far as TV-Out goes, it really annoys me how ATI protects this for the express purpose of protecting the bits that control MacroVision. I mean, under Windows there are always hacks for MacroVision even when there is no documentation available, and if you are a linux head and want to do this, you can use the framebuffer and XFree FBDev and mplayer in console mode to acheive TV-out that sucks for normal usages (unaccelerated) but suffices for those who want to copy stuff to tape.
      All that said, the TV-Capture capabilities combined with a really nice 3D-chipset and open drivers make me want a Radeon AIW 8500DV. I'll wait til GATOS has official support though.
      The problem with binary drivers is that:
      1) You are stuck with Linux on x86. No *BSD, no alpha/powerpc/etc.
      2) You are stuck with what linux kernel that nVidia deems ok. This may be fine for now, but when nVidia releases new products, and cease support of older ones, when you upgrade your distro to something with, say kernel 3.0, your screwed because they only support the GeForce 4 and newer (hypothetical future)

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    3. Re:Open Drivers by aussersterne · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You're wrong about this.

      a) There is an open-source component which hooks the driver core into your kernel. As long as you have XFree86 4, you'll should be able to use the latest NVidia driver by issuing "make install" in the source directory. I have not had any problems with NVidia drivers yet, on any version of the kernel, and I'm now in the 2.5.x-prex series.

      b) Which brings me to support of older cards... You haven't bothered to look at the list of hardware supported by the NVidia driver, have you? You might be surprised... driver support goes all the way back to the NVidia RivaTNT... which predates Linux DRI 3D support!

      This anti-NVidia-Linux stuff is just a lot of GPL-fanatic FUD.

      I've personally owned and tried a Voodoo5 5500, a Radeon (original) and my current hardware, a Geforce2Pro, under Linux. There is no comparison in driver support/how well the cards work... The NVidia card "just works" with Linux and is as fast or faster than under Windows. By comparison, the others feel half-supported by Linux at best.

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  2. NVidia's finally getting some real competition... by turbine216 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Hopefully NVidia will wise up and drop the price on the GeForce 3 line...at a little over $200 (OEM), I can get two 8500's for the price of a single GeForce3 Ti500. And the difference is SO negligible. Since my idea of "practical uses for a video card" is not "watching 3DMark 2001 run all day", I think i can give up that unperceivable 10 FPS without any guilt.

  3. I'd rather patronize ATi, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative


    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.