so when do we get the buyer's guide? [LWN.net]

so when do we get the buyer's guide?

Posted Feb 24, 2008 21:39 UTC (Sun) by louie (subscriber, #3285)
Parent article: Radeon R5xx 3D programming guide released

I'm still looking for a reliable buyer's guide for video cards from anyone- Grumpy Editor, X
people, *somebody*. It currently is impossible to tell where my money should go, other than
'ATI and Intel do good things', which is almost completely unhelpful given the vast range of
products each of them put out.

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so when do we get the buyer's guide?

Posted Feb 24, 2008 23:28 UTC (Sun) by beoba (guest, #16942) [Link]

Varies widely depending on what sort of system you're intending to build since, as you say,
each company has a vast range of products.

Gaming? TV/Myth box? Workstation?

so when do we get the buyer's guide?

Posted Feb 25, 2008 8:24 UTC (Mon) by kripkenstein (subscriber, #43281) [Link]

Let me second that. We keep hearing that ATI R?xx programming guides are released, that Intel
does the same for some (all?) of their chips, but it isn't clear where the bottom line is.

What would be great is a survey of (1) how much a vendor is cooperating with the FOSS
community, and (2) how well particular FOSS drivers currently work, compared with (3) how well
proprietary drivers currently work.

Note: I realize this is probably a lot of work.

buyer's guide link

Posted Feb 26, 2008 4:34 UTC (Tue) by grouch (subscriber, #27289) [Link]

I'm still looking for a reliable buyer's guide for video cards from anyone- Grumpy Editor, X people, *somebody*. It currently is impossible to tell where my money should go, other than 'ATI and Intel do good things', which is almost completely unhelpful given the vast range of products each of them put out.

How about 3D Graphics hardware performance using Free Software drivers (X.Org DRI) as a buyer's guide? I used it when deciding on my current Radeon 9250 card over a year ago and have not had any issues.

buyer's guide link

Posted Feb 26, 2008 5:44 UTC (Tue) by The_Barbarian (subscriber, #48152) [Link]

I got a 9250 a several months ago based on similar research (and the fact that fanless
versions are available), and it has worked perfectly. Admittedly, I haven't tried compiz et al
(I use awesome), but Quake 3 works great.

buyer's guide link

Posted Feb 26, 2008 16:16 UTC (Tue) by AJWM (subscriber, #15888) [Link]

I've tried compiz, which works just fine on my 9250, although I don't use it regularly (never
saw much need for a lot of eye candy).   I mainly got the 9250 for FlightGear FlightSim, for
which it works just fine (a difference of about 2-3 frames/second for my old recycled no-3D
graphics card and about 30+ frames/second for the 9250 with all the effects on).

And yess, the reason I got the 9250 was that it was (at the time, about a year ago) the best
card with free/libre drivers.

buyer's guide link

Posted Feb 26, 2008 17:15 UTC (Tue) by louie (subscriber, #3285) [Link]

Hadn't seen that (though lord knows I've looked.) Is it kept up-to-date? It doesn't look it
from the changelog, but maybe the state of the art hasn't changed in the past year.

buyer's guide link

Posted Feb 26, 2008 17:19 UTC (Tue) by louie (subscriber, #3285) [Link]

(Sadly it doesn't answer my personal question, which has to do with dual-head, but should at least be useful for others.)