From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Nov 30 10:48:10 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C8D1916A4CE for ; Tue, 30 Nov 2004 10:48:10 +0000 (GMT) Received: from c2.smr.ch (c2.smr.ch [128.179.38.3]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id CC30543D1D for ; Tue, 30 Nov 2004 10:48:09 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from tludwig@smr.ch) Received: from localhost (034.adsl96.bie05.lan.ch [::ffff:62.204.96.34]) by c2.smr.ch with esmtp; Tue, 30 Nov 2004 11:48:07 +0100 Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2004 11:37:45 +0100 (CET) Message-Id: <20041130.113745.74755197.tludwig@smr.ch> To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org From: Thomas Ludwig Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: Re: the best graphicscard for FreeBSD X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2004 10:48:10 -0000 Maybe a little OT, but: IMHO the 3D-acceleration issue is too much considered a gamer's problem: There are software producers around like us that use FreeBSD and Linux for their 3D visualization programs. As an example, display of large CFD models needs an excellent VM and good 3D acceleration. For us and our clients the overall quality (stability, correctness, speed) of the 3D part of X & co. is an important criterium of the platform, as is the stability of the kernel, the quality of the file system, manpages, etc. On SGI, we had excellent 3D support, but price-performance, stability, and security were less good. On BSD and Linux we have the latter, but are running in all kinds of problems with 3D, especially when using multiple OpenGL contexts in multiple threads, off-screen rendering, etc. Testing is quite intricate, and there are many subtle ways to screw things there (e.g. recent xorg and xfree86 crashes X server during off-screen rendering). Stuff like glxgears is not sufficient for that purpose... -- Thomas Ludwig SMR SA Phone: +41-32-3452124 P.O. Box 4014 Fax: +41-32-3452120 CH-2500 Bienne 4 E-mail: ludwig@smr.ch