From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu May 4 17:12:49 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id BEFD016A405 for ; Thu, 4 May 2006 17:12:49 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from xfb52@dial.pipex.com) Received: from smtp-out5.blueyonder.co.uk (smtp-out5.blueyonder.co.uk [195.188.213.8]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1B7A843D4C for ; Thu, 4 May 2006 17:12:48 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from xfb52@dial.pipex.com) Received: from [172.23.170.146] (helo=anti-virus03-09) by smtp-out5.blueyonder.co.uk with smtp (Exim 4.52) id 1FbhNf-0003Fn-46; Thu, 04 May 2006 18:12:47 +0100 Received: from [80.192.58.117] (helo=[192.168.0.2]) by asmtp-out4.blueyonder.co.uk with esmtp (Exim 4.52) id 1FbhNe-0001t8-Jz; Thu, 04 May 2006 18:12:46 +0100 Message-ID: <445A360E.3080800@dial.pipex.com> Date: Thu, 04 May 2006 18:12:46 +0100 From: Alex Zbyslaw User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; FreeBSD i386; en-GB; rv:1.7.12) Gecko/20060305 X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Kep Woof References: <9c8168780605040928j3c57ec2dne835d4f449abbfab@mail.gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <9c8168780605040928j3c57ec2dne835d4f449abbfab@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: which graphics card? 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: Thu, 04 May 2006 17:12:49 -0000 Kep Woof wrote: > i need to have direct rendering and dual head dvi. in 2006, decent 3d > performance doesn't seem unreasonable, even if it is just to run a > swanky screen saver. i've got an xfx geforce 6800GT sitting around > here that i'd like to use, but it seems this is currently impossible > on amd64. it seems like a huge waste to run the i386 version on an > amd64 machine, I can't comment on the difference because I didn't bother with amd64 for the very reasons you mention. But, for me, A8V plus single core AMD 4000 + 6800GT is plain bloody fast. Most regular work things I run on it go faster than a single CPU 2.8Ghz Dell 2850, and though you can beat a 6800GT these days, the only way to really *trounce* it is to run two graphics cards with SLI and I'm not sure FreeBSD supports that yet. It'll certainly run your screen saver :-) Runs cool too. There might be better mobos than an A8V these days - I got mine a year ago - but pretty much everything on it works. COM2 needs some kind of expansion but I only needed one. You can always switch to amd64 if NVidia ever do provide drivers. You could also "me too" on their message boards which might make some tiny difference. --Alex