[Discuss] Recommend Video Card for Ubuntu 7.10

[Corey Burger]

On Nov 21, 2007 2:45 PM, Alan W. Irwin <irwin at beluga.phys.uvic.ca> wrote:
> On 2007-11-21 14:03-0800 Corey Burger wrote:
>
> > ATI is providing specs, but the work is slow. Basically, we are
> > looking at 2D by the end of the year, 3D in 2008, late. That driver is
> > the radeonhd and, I will emphasize this, only supports r600 and later
> > (ie: the newest ATI stuff).
>
> I think your estimate of the timing is in good accord with what the phoronix
> articles have been claiming, but that's actually r500 or later according to
> phoronix.
>
> > I have seen nothing on getting the older
> > stuff out of them, although Alan points out that the reverse
> > engineering work on r300/400 stuff is maturing quite nicely now.
>
> Actually, I didn't point that out because I am not sure how that r300/r400
> reverse engineering effort is going.  For example, that whole RE team may
> simply give up and urge everyone to buy r500 or higher or they may get some
> ideas from the r500 and up knowledge that makes (eventually) for a great
> r300/r400 free driver experience.
>
> In sum, the ATI situation is in a huge state of flux right now.  All the
> signs are extraordinarly positive (there is already an immature 2D
> free driver available based on a huge dump of ATI specs to the community,
> see phoronix), but it is impossible to predict exactly how it is going to
> play out and on what time scale.
>
> >
> > The other place to go for good drivers is Intel. However, Intel sells
> > no standalone cards, only integrated ones. That means you need to
> > basically replace your entire computer, as you need to either buy a
> > laptop with Intel or a desktop motherboard. That being said, the
> > latest Intel, 965 and 945 are very fast and because they support all
> > the new shiny features in Xorg, make Compiz Fusion a breeze to use. In
> > fact, even their older cards (such as the 915 in my laptop) are great
> > cards and do desktop 3D effects easily.
> >
> > Conclusion: Buy Intel or wait. Sorry :(
>
> or maybe buy r200 or maybe go back to your old distro until the Ubuntu
> dual-head bug for your current ATI card that you have found gets fixed.

Absolutely, the r200 stuff (consumer stuff is Radeon 9200 and 9250) is
still very much in production and for a basic dual head video card,
works well.

Corey