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video cards
by Matthew Gillen
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My nvidia card from 2 years ago is flaking out on me (flickering the display
for a while, then locking up my computer). Once I removed the nvidia card and relied on the onboard video, everything was stable, so it must be the video card going bad. So I'm wondering what the current state of video cards are for linux. Is ATI finally back in the game or not? I'm looking for something that is mid-range (it's replacing a Geforce 8600) to play games in windows (nwn2), and also be a mythtv frontend (in linux, with full HD playback). And, since I've already been burned by this when they did their last naming-scheme change, what do the various numbers/card-names mean for ATI and Nvidia? Nvidia seems to be going back to 3-digit numbers, which bugs me. I figured out their 4-digit system the hard way: the most significant digit was the generation marker, and the *third* digit indicated how high-end the card was (an 6800 was higher performance than a 7300). So how do the 3-digit ones compare to, say, a 9800GT? Thanks for any insight, Matt _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list Discuss@... http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss |
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Re: video cards
by Ben Eisenbraun
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Hey Matt,
> So I'm wondering what the current state of video cards are for linux. Is > ATI finally back in the game or not? No, I think their drivers still suck. > I'm looking for something that is mid-range (it's replacing a Geforce > 8600) to play games in windows (nwn2), and also be a mythtv frontend (in > linux, with full HD playback). I bought a 9600GT for these same purposes in the spring, but apparently not all the VDPAU features are supported on this card, so you might need to target something slightly higher end if your goal is to offload video decoding to the GPU. > And, since I've already been burned by this when they did their last > naming-scheme change, what do the various numbers/card-names mean for ATI > and Nvidia? Wikipedia continues to be the best source of information for figuring out this mess: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Nvidia_graphics_processing_units Find the graphics chipsets you want to compare and then look at the base stats for clock speeds, memory speed, fill rate, etc. Nvidia's website is mostly useless in this regard. -ben -- the significant problems we face today cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them. <albert einstein> _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list Discuss@... http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss |
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Re: video cards
by Jarod Wilson
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On Oct 20, 2009, at 1:51 PM, Matthew Gillen wrote:
> My nvidia card from 2 years ago is flaking out on me (flickering the > display > for a while, then locking up my computer). Once I removed the > nvidia card > and relied on the onboard video, everything was stable, so it must > be the > video card going bad. > > So I'm wondering what the current state of video cards are for > linux. Is > ATI finally back in the game or not? Depends on which game you're talking about. The open-source drivers are getting pretty decent even for recent hardware. Not sure about the closed driver's performance or stability or compatibility with the latest xorg. I do know they're still way behind nVidia on GPU-based video decoding (hell, they're even behind Intel). > I'm looking for something that is > mid-range (it's replacing a Geforce 8600) to play games in windows > (nwn2), > and also be a mythtv frontend (in linux, with full HD playback). If mythtv is one of the games, stay away from ATI, get an nVidia card, no question. > And, since I've already been burned by this when they did their last > naming-scheme change, what do the various numbers/card-names mean > for ATI > and Nvidia? Nvidia seems to be going back to 3-digit numbers, which > bugs > me. I figured out their 4-digit system the hard way: the most > significant > digit was the generation marker, and the *third* digit indicated how > high-end the card was (an 6800 was higher performance than a 7300). > So how > do the 3-digit ones compare to, say, a 9800GT? No clue. The most recent nvidia cards I've acquired were a 9400M (onboard an ion motherboard) and a 9600GT, both of which are more than enough for my needs. I'm sure wikipedia has some answers on that. ;) The main things to know for mythtv use: -Most 8000 series and all 9000 series and up are supported by VDPAU (Video Decode and Presentation Acceleration for UNIX, or something like that -- GPU-based video decoding). -The 8600 and up in the 8 series, then 9500 and up are necessary to support the VDPAU Advanced 2x hardware deinterlacer, which is widely regarded as the best deinterlacer available under Linux, when viewing HDTV content (i.e., 1080i mpeg2). -The 100 series and up support a wider range of codecs (adds xvid and divx, I think) than the earlier cards (which support mpeg2, h.264 and assorted other mpeg4 variant). -You probably don't really *need* VDPAU until you start talking about blu-ray and other high definition h.264 material, but its nice to have. -- Jarod Wilson jarod@... _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list Discuss@... http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss |
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Re: video cards
by Jarod Wilson
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On Oct 20, 2009, at 2:05 PM, Ben Eisenbraun wrote:
> >> I'm looking for something that is mid-range (it's replacing a Geforce >> 8600) to play games in windows (nwn2), and also be a mythtv >> frontend (in >> linux, with full HD playback). > > I bought a 9600GT for these same purposes in the spring, but > apparently > not all the VDPAU features are supported on this card, so you might > need to > target something slightly higher end if your goal is to offload video > decoding to the GPU. The only thing not supported on the 9600 is offload of xvid and divx decoding (and possibly some other codecs). The 9600 can handle up to 1080p h.264 and mpeg2 just fine. (I have one, as well as a 9400M, both of which handle 1080p h.264 and 1080i mpeg2 w/o a problem). -- Jarod Wilson jarod@... _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list Discuss@... http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss |
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Re: video cards
by Mark J. Dulcey
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Matthew Gillen wrote:
> My nvidia card from 2 years ago is flaking out on me (flickering the display > for a while, then locking up my computer). Once I removed the nvidia card > and relied on the onboard video, everything was stable, so it must be the > video card going bad. > > So I'm wondering what the current state of video cards are for linux. Is > ATI finally back in the game or not? I'm looking for something that is > mid-range (it's replacing a Geforce 8600) to play games in windows (nwn2), > and also be a mythtv frontend (in linux, with full HD playback). > > And, since I've already been burned by this when they did their last > naming-scheme change, what do the various numbers/card-names mean for ATI > and Nvidia? Nvidia seems to be going back to 3-digit numbers, which bugs > me. I figured out their 4-digit system the hard way: the most significant > digit was the generation marker, and the *third* digit indicated how > high-end the card was (an 6800 was higher performance than a 7300). So how > do the 3-digit ones compare to, say, a 9800GT? First, I'm rather sour on ATI right now because of their dropping Linux support for their older cards. If you have anything older than a Radeon HD2000 series card their current Linux drivers don't support it. (That means there are computers that are STILL IN PRODUCTION that have no current driver support!!) And since the current ones are the ONLY ones with support for the new version of X Windows, you're stuck; you can't upgrade to Ubuntu Jaunty or Fedora 11 or any other distro that uses that new version of X. If you don't care about 3D performance there is a decent open source driver for the older cards, but its 3D performance is pitiful; I tried Second Life on my ATI-based laptop (running the Karmic beta, which has a newer open source driver than Jaunty does, from the live CD) and suffered a 75% drop in frame rate. So I'm leaving that system on Intrepid for now. ATI does seem to be doing a better job on their drivers for the newer cards, though they don't always manage same-day releases. The entire HD3000 and HD4000 series is supported; I wouldn't count on the brand-new HD5000 series cards working yet, but they will be soon. Meanwhile, NVidia continues as before; no decent open source drivers (there is one but it's even more lacking in 3D capability than the ATI driver) but a good closed source driver that supports all their cards. The GForce GTS 250 is a renamed 9800GTS so its performance is exactly the same - 10-20% faster than a 9800GT. The higher numbered cards in the GTS 200 series are based on the next generation GPU; a GTS 260 is probably about twice as fast as a 9800GT and they progress upward from there. NVidia has a GTS 300 series in the works but it's not out yet, and I expect the drivers for it will be shaky for the first few months based on experience with past generations of NVidia hardware. I think the G 100 series are downclocked mobile versions of the 9000 series; you'd have to check out the specs on NVidia.com to figure out which is comparable to which. Most video cards have at least a 3 year warranty, and in the case of NVidia 8000 and 9000 series cards it might even get extended because of the known manufacturing problems with those GPUs. So make sure to contact your video card manufacturer and see if your card is covered. _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list Discuss@... http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss |
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Re: video cards
by Matthew Gillen
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You guys rock!
Thanks for all the responses, especially the details on the vdpau support and the numbering scheme. How sad is it that wikipedia is a better/more accessible source of information than a vendor's website? Sounds like I should stick with Nvidia (which is sort of what I wanted to anyway, since they have a stronger linux support history). On 10/20/2009 02:16 PM, Mark J. Dulcey wrote: > Most video cards have at least a 3 year warranty, and in the case of > NVidia 8000 and 9000 series cards it might even get extended because of > the known manufacturing problems with those GPUs. So make sure to > contact your video card manufacturer and see if your card is covered. You know, I never even thought of that. I bought the card from Tigerdirect, and they told me there was a 1yr warranty. What they didn't tell me was that if you register your card with XFX (the manufacturer for this particular card) *within 30 days of purchase*, then XFX will make it a lifetime warranty. I got it touch with them anyway and they told me I was SOL. Doh! Next time I'll know better... Matt _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list Discuss@... http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss |
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Re: video cards
by Jarod Wilson
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On Oct 20, 2009, at 2:09 PM, Jarod Wilson wrote: > On Oct 20, 2009, at 2:05 PM, Ben Eisenbraun wrote: >> >>> I'm looking for something that is mid-range (it's replacing a >>> Geforce >>> 8600) to play games in windows (nwn2), and also be a mythtv >>> frontend (in >>> linux, with full HD playback). >> >> I bought a 9600GT for these same purposes in the spring, but >> apparently >> not all the VDPAU features are supported on this card, so you might >> need to >> target something slightly higher end if your goal is to offload video >> decoding to the GPU. > > The only thing not supported on the 9600 is offload of xvid and divx > decoding (and possibly some other codecs). The 9600 can handle up to > 1080p h.264 and mpeg2 just fine. (I have one, as well as a 9400M, > both of which handle 1080p h.264 and 1080i mpeg2 w/o a problem). See also: http://mythtv.org/wiki/VDPAU -- Jarod Wilson jarod@... _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list Discuss@... http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss |
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Re: video cards
by Matthew Gillen
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On 10/20/2009 06:25 PM, jay@... wrote:
> For the nvidia cards, the 9000s are a rebranding of the 8800 design with some memory and speed changes. After looking into it a bit, it seems that in terms of CUDA cores and clock speed, a 9500GT is essentially equivalent to my now-defunct 8600GT. But the kicker is that you can get a 9500GT that's fanless, which is huge for me (the 8600 was really loud when it was getting a workout, which makes it annoying in the mythtv-frontend role). Plus it's only $44. Can't beat that. http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4138175&sku=S15-9504 _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list Discuss@... http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss |
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