Date: Wed, 13 May 2009 21:18:34 -0700 From: Josef Grosch <jgrosch@mooseriver.com> To: Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org> Cc: question@freebsd.org, hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: In search of a video card Message-ID: <20090514041834.GB1418@mooseriver.com> In-Reply-To: <20090514000203.3d053800@bhuda.mired.org> References: <20090514030634.GA1252@mooseriver.com> <20090514000203.3d053800@bhuda.mired.org>
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--kORqDWCi7qDJ0mEj Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On Thu, May 14, 2009 at 12:02:03AM -0400, Mike Meyer wrote: > On Wed, 13 May 2009 20:06:34 -0700 > Josef Grosch <jgrosch@mooseriver.com> wrote: >=20 > >=20 > > I'm in search for a decent video card. I currently have an Nvidia GeFor= ce > > 8400 GS. It worked pretty well i386 FreeBSD 6.2. I have upgraded my home > > machine and I am running amd64 FreeBSD 7.2 and it just refuses to go in= to > > X. It just hangs. I've been poking around and, based on what I read, so= me > > FreeBSD developers and Nvidia have gotten into a finger pointing contes= t as > > to what is the problem. Its all very nice but doesn't help me much. > >=20 > > So, can any one recommend a good video card? What I'm looking for is > >=20 > > * Works with amd64 FreeBSD 7.2 > > * DVI=20 > > * PCI-E x16 > > * 512 MB or more > > * Not going to cost an arm and a leg >=20 > You forgot the critical information: you didn't define what works for > you. In particular, does a card that doesn't do 3d acceleration > "work"? How about 2d? >=20 > The open source Nvidia driver pretty much sucks. Probably because the > proprietary Nvidia blob (which you were presumably using on i386) is > one of the most functional X video drivers around, so there's not a > lot of incentive to work on the open source version. But you can't use > the proprietary blob on amd64, so you get the open source driver, and > - well you've experienced it. >=20 > The ATI radeon driver - it's open source, there's no proprietary blob > - is actually pretty good. Except that 2d & 3d acceleration support > is, um, variable. >=20 > If you have to have 2d & 3d acceleration, I don't believe you have a > good option for FreeBSD on amd64, at least not until the kernel tweaks > Nvidia needs are done (there has been some motion on that front > recently). But I don't really need it, so I haven't spent any time > looking for such a card. >=20 > If you're ok with solid - if basic - video performance, I'll recommend > pretty much any radeon card. I've used a number of them to drive dual > 1920x1200 displays on a variety of systems for a couple of years now. > Amazon has cards that meet your listed requirements for under US$40. >=20 > <mike Thanks, I don't need 2d & 3d acceleration. I just need a card that will handle WindowMaker on a 24 inch Dell monitor at 1920x1200 and as long as the flesh tones on my JPGs don't suck I'm happy. Thanks for the advice. I guess I'm going to make a trip to Fry's Friday. Josef --=20 Josef Grosch | Another day closer to a | FreeBSD 7.2 jgrosch@MooseRiver.com | Micro$oft free world | Berkeley, Ca. --kORqDWCi7qDJ0mEj Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- iD8DBQFKC5uay8prLS1GYSERAr3HAKDD//GJENeJJg3Z66P3n/4rMFQgaACePjk8 QyGhIoIOWk/PViHIVDBl0Z8= =lAIu -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --kORqDWCi7qDJ0mEj--
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