Date: Tue, 4 Jan 2011 20:14:26 +0100 From: Ivan Voras <ivoras@freebsd.org> To: freebsd-x11@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Nvidia driver? Message-ID: <AANLkTindHvqNO1ZhkocwHjj9WR0sgz8-wUdjDo=ZQ=yM@mail.gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <201101041251.p04Cpgv4087234@lurza.secnetix.de> References: <iftucp$rrv$1@dough.gmane.org> <201101041251.p04Cpgv4087234@lurza.secnetix.de>
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On 4 January 2011 13:51, Oliver Fromme <olli@lurza.secnetix.de> wrote: > Ivan Voras wrote: > =C2=A0> For ages now I've been buying ATI cards for my home dual-boot mac= hine, > =C2=A0> but it looks like the driver situation is only getting worse so I= 'm > =C2=A0> thinking of switching camps to nvidia. > > Is it really that bad? Perhaps I'm getting even more impatient :) Basically, ATI has two generations of card widely present on the market: the 4xxx and the 5xxx, with 6xxx starting to ship and 7xxx will probably come out at the end of 2011 (luckily, the naming scheme is simple with ATI). The 4xxx generation started to ship in 2008 and is currently the last one for which open-source 3D-capable drivers exist. It's simple: I have a 3600 card from 2008 and though I'm not a big gamer, it's time to upgrade (also I suspect overheating problems with it). I'm also very much used to having a 3D desktop in X so the next card must support it or it will seem like a step backward. > I never cared much about ATI (AMD) vs. Nvidia, because it > seemed that both of them have their share of advantages > and disadvantages. =C2=A0A few months ago I bought a new box > that happened to have ATI/AMD inside (it really didn't > matter to me when I bought it), and it's working without > any problems, including video acceleration (can play 1080p > full-screen at low CPU usage) and 3D / GL stuff. =C2=A0More > than enough for me. =C2=A0Unfortunately I can't say the same > about my workstation at the office which has some Nvidia > chip; it has problems with 3D support, I never got it to > work stable in 64bit mode. =C2=A0I spent several hours, now > I'm fed up with it and decided to simply run the darned > thing in i386 mode (doesn't matter much, it has < 4 GB > RAM anyway). > > As things stand today, according to my personal experience, > I'd rather buy ATI/AMD again instead of Nvidia. So would I. I know everyone has his own experiences but I had much less problems with ATI cards than some of my friends with nvidia (excluding the whole "open source" issue :) ). But I concluded I'll not buy a two generations old card just because there are no new drivers available, it's easier to try switching. Since my requirements are low, my target price class is also low, it will not be a critical issue if it doesn't work out.
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