What are the recommended graphic cards for Linux ?

[wintermute]

I'm struggling to get my Asus A9250 TD (chipset ATI R200)to work in either Fedora Core 6 or Ubuntu.
To this day, I still don't have DRI nor dual head working.
I've posted a lot of messages about this in the ATI thread, along with copies of my Xorg.0.log, xorg.conf, plus error outputs of all kind from fglrxinfo and so on...

Michael can't keep track of our mails and posts, keeps on asking for the same informations again and again and eventually doesn't provide explanations nor solutions. Note that I don't criticize him, he must be overloaded with help requests from tens of people a day.

I just want some feedback from people who have a fully functionnal Linux Box with dual-head AND dri at the same time (And please don't tell me about expensive professional graphic cards):
What distribution do you use ?
What graphic card do you use ?

By the way, once I will find what new graphic card to buy, I will sell the one I own. So If anyone here is interested with an Asus A9250 TD for a Windows use, let me know

[ivanovic]

I am using an ATI Radeon 9800Pro 128MB (from powercolor, I think, but it is the plain reference design by amd) and it works like a charm using Gentoo Linux and the open dri drivers included in the kernel (module name: radeon).
Speed in 3D is not so good but beside this it works perfectly. I did even try beryl some time ago and it did simply work. In other words: thanks to the guys from the r300 project who did decompile the closed driver to gain some specs for creatgin open drivers. I really hope that the improvements currently taking place at mesa will help a little with 3D performance.

[wintermute]

Thank you Ivanovic.

But it seems we achieved the same results, since my a9250 works with radeon opensource driver too. As you mention it, speed in 3D in "not so good". And that's why I began this thread : I don't want no more 'not so good' performances with those advanced 3D calculation circuitry graphic cards. I want to be able to play Nexuiz and whatever 3d requiring software with reasonable fps, is that too much to ask to graphic card makers ?

By the way Ivanovic, you forgot to mention if you were in a dual-head configuration ? It's extremely important to me, I cannot imagine using a computer that doesn't have dual head any more.

[Michael]

Using any supported ATI graphics card with dual VGA/DVI connectors should work.

Sending you a message in a minute about your other problem you emailed me about. I was out of town for part of the week and then was busy finishing up other work.

[ivanovic]

I did run it in a dualhead config for some time but not too long. It did work nicely.
Since I do not play 3D games and for those nice 2D OpenGL games it works nicely I do not have any problem. Example for a nicely working game is the latest version of supertux.
And you should keep in mind that the open drivers are written by volunteers. The companys seem to not be brave enough to release open drivers. Eg AMD/ATI did not even answer someone who did write 2D drivers for the r500 line (he was under an NDA so he had to ask). The driver is done but the companys did not react. IMO it is the companys that should be blamed, not the current existing driver itself since it is amazing what they did without any documentation. The only company that is "on the good side" is Intel. They do even pay people to develop the open source graphics drivers.

[wintermute]

And you should keep in mind that the open drivers are written by volunteers. [...] IMO it is the companys that should be blamed, not the current existing driver itself since it is amazing what they did without any documentation.

Then we share the same view. I don't blame volunteers for their works (How dare I??), but indeed the manufacturer companies !

The only company that is "on the good side" is Intel. They do even pay people to develop the open source graphics drivers.

What ?! Intel provides really effective opensource drivers for their graphic products ? Does it include real 3D accel ? and dual head ? What are the names of these cards and are they expensive ??

[Michael]

Eg AMD/ATI did not even answer someone who did write 2D drivers for the r500 line (he was under an NDA so he had to ask). The driver is done but the companys did not react.

I don't want to get off topic in this thread, but just to be clear it didn't exactly go down like that. The driver will not be opened as the driver was created in violation of an agreement -- though some hopeful information: http://www.michaellarabel.com/?k=blog&i=56

[Michael]

What ?! Intel provides really effective opensource drivers for their graphic products ? Does it include real 3D accel ? and dual head ? What are the names of these cards and are they expensive ??

Intel provides reliable (though still developing) open-source drivers. However, right now Intel only has integrated graphics on their motherboards -- so you would need a mobo with an Intel G Chipset. It includes 3D acceleration and on motherboards using their expansion header you should be able to do dual head. The new integrated graphics are the GMA3000 and X3000. They aren't the fastest and comparable to an ~ ATI X300. They will be introduced high-end graphics cards that are discrete but not for a while.

[Saist]

*reads up on the thread*

First thing: it probably is going to be difficult to get Dual Head Support on R200 chips. They do not have Dual RamDACS, they only have one. The result is that a Radeon 8500 can only do "Copy Screen," Where both monitors show the same output, and "Stretch Screen," where the entire output device is treated as one display.

I, personally, am not aware of anybody that has succeeded in getting Dual Headed support working on any Radeon 8500 card under Linux.

Second thing: ATi officially dropped the Radeon 8500 support last year, sometime around August, with the 8.29 driver release. 8.25, 8.26, 8.27, and 8.28 also had problems with OpenGL/DRI acceleration on Radeon 8500.

So, in order to get DRI support, you would either need to use the X.org Radeon Driver, or go all the way back to 8.24 or previous on the Official Fglrx driver.

That being said, I have gotten dual head support with Radeon 9600, 9800, and x1600 Pro AGP.

I've also managed to get Dual Head support out of a Geforce4 4200 TI, and a 6600 GT.

Distrobution? Mepis Linux.

Also, the 9250 really isn't an attractive buy. It's basically a cut rate Radeon 8500 with less than half the available fill rate.

[wintermute]

Interesting input Saist... !

*reads up on the thread*

I did read all I could on this forum and others. I became well aware that there were serious issues with this 9250. I thought I could solve them.

First thing: it probably is going to be difficult to get Dual Head Support on R200 chips. They do not have Dual RamDACS, they only have one. The result is that a Radeon 8500 can only do "Copy Screen," Where both monitors show the same output, and "Stretch Screen," where the entire output device is treated as one display.

Very instructive. I couldn't find any hint until then about the 9250 architecture, which is very helpful when it comes to write a good xorg.conf. What's confusing too is that there's two ports listed for this card when doing lspci|grep ATI : 1:0:0 and 1:0:1. I've been asking for some explanations about it, made some suppositions, but never had answers. I still don't know if it's a dummy flag or a real device, like TV output.

I, personally, am not aware of anybody that has succeeded in getting Dual Headed support working on any Radeon 8500 card under Linux.

Second thing: ATi officially dropped the Radeon 8500 support last year, sometime around August, with the 8.29 driver release. 8.25, 8.26, 8.27, and 8.28 also had problems with OpenGL/DRI acceleration on Radeon 8500.

I got dualhead working ! Yet it was using the radeon opensource driver, but it worked well. Of course, there was no dri.

That being said, I have gotten dual head support with Radeon 9600, 9800, and x1600 Pro AGP.

I've also managed to get Dual Head support out of a Geforce4 4200 TI, and a 6600 GT.

Distrobution? Mepis Linux.

Also, the 9250 really isn't an attractive buy. It's basically a cut rate Radeon 8500 with less than half the available fill rate.

[/QUOTE]

*sigh* I know I did a terrible buy. I'm still slapping myself for not having more thoroughly checked 9250 linux support.
I'm looking forward to getting an nvidia card. I still don't know which model to chose. If someone has a clue... (Im running a PIV 2.6Ghz 1Go ram with AGP port) ?