From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Feb 2 22:13:51 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 E29E416A417 for ; Sat, 2 Feb 2008 22:13:51 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from wojtek@wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl) Received: from wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl (wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl [IPv6:2001:4070:101:2::1]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DC1D013C457 for ; Sat, 2 Feb 2008 22:13:39 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from wojtek@wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl) Received: from wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl (localhost [IPv6:::1]) by wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id m12MDUXD004428; Sat, 2 Feb 2008 23:13:30 +0100 (CET) (envelope-from wojtek@wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl) Received: from localhost (wojtek@localhost) by wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl (8.13.8/8.13.8/Submit) with ESMTP id m12MDPEs004425; Sat, 2 Feb 2008 23:13:28 +0100 (CET) (envelope-from wojtek@wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl) Date: Sat, 2 Feb 2008 23:13:25 +0100 (CET) From: Wojciech Puchar To: Mike Clarke In-Reply-To: <200802022112.28641.jmc-freebsd@milibyte.co.uk> Message-ID: <20080202231028.P4423@wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl> References: <200802022112.28641.jmc-freebsd@milibyte.co.uk> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Nvidia graphics on AMD64 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: Sat, 02 Feb 2008 22:13:52 -0000 > After running a 90 hour portupgrade job on my current Duron 1600 based system > I've persuaded myself that a hardware upgrade is due. simply use precompiled ones if it's a problem. anyway - i don't what bloatware you have compiled but on my 1200Mhz Thinkpad i needed few hours to install things i use. > > I'm contemplating building a system around an Athlon 64 X2 4200+ CPU. I'm not > into games and overclocking so a relatively low end motherboard with > integrated graphics should suffice. I've been looking at a few specs, many of > them use Nvidia chipsets and I understand that there isn't a Nvidia graphics > driver for FreeBSD on the AMD64 platform. by general there are lots of problems with nvidia as it's closed source. i always avoid closed source. > If I choose a Nvidia based motherboard would I have to install the i386 > version of FreeBSD if I wanted to use the onboard graphics, in which case to > what extent would the overall performance suffer? i would check if it will really work as it should - AT ALL, before buying. > > My graphics needs are fairly modest, so long as I can use the Gimp to edit > some photos I'm OK, but playing the occasional DVD fairly smoothly would be a > bonus but not essential. Is there any alternative graphics driver which would > meet my needs? any WORKING card should suffice for your needs.