From owner-freebsd-amd64@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Oct 19 14:54:06 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-amd64@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-amd64@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 00A1316A521 for ; Thu, 19 Oct 2006 14:54:06 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jhb@freebsd.org) Received: from server.baldwin.cx (66-23-211-162.clients.speedfactory.net [66.23.211.162]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4728943D58 for ; Thu, 19 Oct 2006 14:54:05 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from jhb@freebsd.org) Received: from localhost.corp.yahoo.com (john@localhost [127.0.0.1]) (authenticated bits=0) by server.baldwin.cx (8.13.6/8.13.6) with ESMTP id k9JErWNA066690; Thu, 19 Oct 2006 10:53:55 -0400 (EDT) (envelope-from jhb@freebsd.org) From: John Baldwin To: freebsd-amd64@freebsd.org Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2006 10:25:28 -0400 User-Agent: KMail/1.9.1 References: <45351E55.000003.14882@webmail11.yandex.ru> <4535CC95.5030501@gneto.com> <17718.14122.595003.335493@bhuda.mired.org> In-Reply-To: <17718.14122.595003.335493@bhuda.mired.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Disposition: inline Message-Id: <200610191025.29016.jhb@freebsd.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Greylist: Sender succeeded SMTP AUTH authentication, not delayed by milter-greylist-2.0.2 (server.baldwin.cx [127.0.0.1]); Thu, 19 Oct 2006 10:54:00 -0400 (EDT) X-Virus-Scanned: ClamAV 0.88.3/2050/Thu Oct 19 03:58:33 2006 on server.baldwin.cx X-Virus-Status: Clean X-Spam-Status: No, score=-4.4 required=4.2 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00 autolearn=ham version=3.1.3 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.1.3 (2006-06-01) on server.baldwin.cx Cc: Mike Meyer Subject: Re: video card for amd64 X-BeenThere: freebsd-amd64@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Porting FreeBSD to the AMD64 platform List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2006 14:54:06 -0000 On Wednesday 18 October 2006 10:16, Mike Meyer wrote: > Yeah, the newest cards aren't supported. That's the R5XXX cards - > which were introduced about a year ago, *not* three years ago. Of > course, maybe you're focused on 3d support, which is missing for cards > using the R3XX and later chips. 3D support is actually quite important for many folks, if you don't need it you can just use the "vesa" driver with either ATI or Nvidia. > > > Whether releasing closed-source drivers for a handful of open-source > > > platforms qualifies as "supporting open source" is another > > > question. Clearly they're supporting the platform, but that's not > > > necessarily the same thing. > > At present the nVidia cards is the only choice for FreeBSD, > > Not if you want to use it on something other than i386. That's why the > very first question I asked is the important one - what do you want to > use it for? For what I want it for, ATI is the only choice. > > > no amd64 support but that is FreeBSD's fault not nVidia > > Why is that FreeBSD's fault? Because our kernel doesn't yet provide all the features the driver needs. I've added some of them, but mroe stuff is needed. Nvidia sent out an e-mail a while back listing the things they need as far as kernel support. Given their willingness to do a driver and my interactions with both ATI (in the past) and Nvidia, I'd say that Nvidia supports FreeBSD much more than ATI at this point. Note that ATI only opened up their documents for the older R2xx cards under an NDA to developers working for a company that was under contract to develop a driver, not out of the goodness of their heart. To my knowledge, Nvidia is not providing a FreeBSD driver due to a commercial contract, but closer to "out of the goodness of their heart." -- John Baldwin