From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sun May 25 22:54:31 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 28511106566B for ; Sun, 25 May 2008 22:54:31 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jonc@chen.org.nz) Received: from chen.org.nz (ip-58-28-152-174.static-xdsl.xnet.co.nz [58.28.152.174]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B60208FC0C for ; Sun, 25 May 2008 22:54:30 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jonc@chen.org.nz) Received: by chen.org.nz (Postfix, from userid 1000) id E41D528436; Mon, 26 May 2008 10:54:28 +1200 (NZST) Date: Mon, 26 May 2008 10:54:28 +1200 From: Jonathan Chen To: Mark Ovens Message-ID: <20080525225428.GA71710@osiris.chen.org.nz> References: <4839E278.3060208@magichamster.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <4839E278.3060208@magichamster.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.3i Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Best nVidia card for Xorg on FreeBSD? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 25 May 2008 22:54:31 -0000 On Sun, May 25, 2008 at 11:04:40PM +0100, Mark Ovens wrote: > Currently using a Radeon 8500LE but since u/g to xorg 7.3 I've had > nothing but trouble with X hanging/crashing/locking-up. > > From what I've read, the state of the radeon drivers leaves much to be > desired and although some people seem to have trouble with nVidia cards > they appear to be a better choice. > > So, after over a decade of brand-loyalty to ATI (when I started with > FreeBSD back in the mid-90's ATI cards were the only ones I could find > that would run X at better than VGA resolution) I'm going to switch to > nVidia. Heh. I was just thinking about going the other way. One of the main problems with the nVidia on X is that the xorg-nvidia driver is very basic; this can be demonstrated by going to a Javascript heavy page (eg http://www.xwiki.org) using firefox. The X-server just slows to crawl when trying to scroll the site. The behaviour is not exhibited with xorg-intel driver, as a counter-example. Support for the nVidia on FreeBSD from the vendor is also incomplete: http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-hackers/2006-June/016995.html The feature request from nVidia appears to have stalled for the time being (more correctly: I couldn't locate news on any updates to on the 'Net). In short, nVidia cards are usable, but performance can be exceptionally bad. Cheers. -- Jonathan Chen ---------------------------------------------------------------------- "Only the meek get pinched. The bold survive." - Ferris Bueller