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View Full Version : Which card for photo/opengl work

haplo602
08-12-2009, 01:53 PM
Hello all

I registered just to ask this question. It seems Phoronix members have quite some experience with different graphics cards under Linux.

Some background: I am using Linux on and off since Redhat 6.0 (those were the days of 2.2 kernels). My current card is a geforce 6600 AGP, previous was a radeon x1650 xt.

I am building a new rig for photo editing and some hobby opengl development. Based on an AMD platform (Phenom II X2, 4gb ram, 785g mATX mobo). The last part is the graphics card. Requirements are:

opengl 3.0+
color calibration (this is not entirely card dependant, I know)
good wine support (but not a top prio, I do some light MMORPG gaming - eve online, guildwars, jade dynasty)
cheap (this is a huge factor) - sub 100 euro

Now I did some research on the internet with some google help. Most of the comments I read are about Windows based platforms or are ancient old (opengl 1.5 days).

So far I have a 9800GT 512MB in view. I can get a HD 4870 2nd hand from a friend.

It seems the nvidia one has better driver and developer support, however I have seen reports that their shader compilers are a bit on the benevolent side. They do accept things not strictly standard which later makes trouble for ATI cards. On the other side, I still remember fglrx problems I had.

Viable choices: HD4830, HD4670, 9600GT, 9800GT, HD4850.

Any help or suggestion to add to the list ?
Kano
08-12-2009, 02:12 PM
Go for GTS 250 (G92b). GTS 250 is the new name for a 9800 GTX+ but as they are more common they are usally cheaper. I would prefer a GTX 260 (GT200) however if i would buy a new card.
haplo602
08-12-2009, 05:38 PM
Go for GTS 250 (G92b). GTS 250 is the new name for a 9800 GTX+ but as they are more common they are usally cheaper. I would prefer a GTX 260 (GT200) however if i would buy a new card.

Unfortunately a GTS250 is out of my budget, I already considered that option and discarded it.

And I am not much fond of the Nvidia renaming game, so I guess the 9800GT does most of GTS250 for reasonable money.

I am an AMD/ATI fan actualy, just the driver state is the biggest issue. I mean Nvidia already has ogl 3.2 drivers while ATI is only at 3.0 ...
haplo602
08-13-2009, 09:32 AM
looks like I will settle with the 9800GT and use the integrated HD4200 to test ATI compatibility. seems to be the best solution.
deanjo
08-13-2009, 09:44 AM
looks like I will settle with the 9800GT and use the integrated HD4200 to test ATI compatibility. seems to be the best solution.

The 9800GT is certianly more then capable of handling anything that linux can throw at it right now with maybe the exception of Double-Precision in GPU computing, a GT200 card is required for that. This however will not be a real factor until mainstream user openCL apps hit the wild.
Biker
08-16-2009, 07:14 PM
SAPPHIRE 100256HDMI Radeon HD 4670 1GB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16
Kano
08-17-2009, 04:40 AM
That card does not even have got driver support for 2.6.31 kernel (until you patch the KERNEL). Pretty useless currently.
nanonyme
08-17-2009, 04:46 AM
Now I did some research on the internet with some google help. Most of the comments I read are about Windows based platforms or are ancient old (opengl 1.5 days).An ironic offtopic note: opensource ATi drivers are just getting to OpenGL 1.5. :)
Biker
08-17-2009, 05:43 PM
http://www.opengl.org/wiki/Getting_started
Ant P.
08-17-2009, 05:48 PM
An ironic offtopic note: opensource ATi drivers are just getting to OpenGL 1.5. :)

To be fair, that's 1.5 more than nVidia will ever contribute to open source.

I'm a bit pissed now that I got a HD4350; should have got an R500 instead...
haplo602
09-25-2009, 07:20 AM
after some price changes, I am now able to squeeze a GTS 250 512MB card into the build ... I am one happy bunny now.
nanonyme
09-25-2009, 07:38 AM
It seems the nvidia one has better driver and developer support, however I have seen reports that their shader compilers are a bit on the benevolent side. They do accept things not strictly standard which later makes trouble for ATI cards. On the other side, I still remember fglrx problems I had.Btw, imo this is only a problem if you want to do software development, doesn't matter for an end user if stuff that's not supposed to work does. If you go for software development on an nVidia card (and drivers), remember to have the project tested by users who have some other card and/or drivers.