# What is the best Video card for Gentoo?

## JohnnyGTO

First lets toss out those $300+ video cards, my monitor isn't that good. 

What is the all round best card /  chipset for Gentoo? I want to get a card that installs whithout too much tweaking, is well supported by the community and the manufacture, is fast and above all gives the same clean (not out of focus) screen my G550 gives me at 1280x1024 (my ATI sucks for image quality compared to the G550 under windoze).

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## Cr0t

Just go for a nVidia Card. You can get a good nVidia Card for $40.

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## klieber

What's wrong with the G550?  Matrox makes fine cards and unless you need good 3D performance, I'd stick with them.

nVidia makes fine cards -- some of the best and their drivers are top-notch.  However, if you want to get nVidia-like performance out of them, you have to install their (closed source) drivers each and every time you compile a new kernel.  This is, IMO, a major pain in the arse.  

--kurt

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## JohnnyGTO

Yes I would recommend the G550 to anyone who needs great 2D video ( It's in my business machine ).  I do want to get something with better 3D performance for my Gentoo box. I was thinking one of the lower end Nvidia GeForce4 Ti or MX cards.

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## jay

Well I'd better take care before tossing a nvidia card into my system. I use to have a GF4 MX and have still problems to get it working with the nvidia divers. Too bad that they're closed source, you always have to wait for the next patch...

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## klieber

 *JohnnyGTO wrote:*   

> I was thinking one of the lower end Nvidia GeForce4 Ti or MX cards.

 

I use a GeForce2 MX and have had good results with it.  As I mentioned before, it takes a lot of hand-holding every time I recompile a kernel, but the install itself is very smooth (just tedious)

Most of the problems folks are reporting with nVidia cards and Gentoo seem to revolve around the GeForce 4 -- so, you might have better results by going with an earlier (and cheaper  :Smile: ) version.  That's purely anecdotal, however, so take it with a grain of salt.

--kurt

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## JohnnyGTO

Anyone had any experience with Gainward nVIDIA GeForce4 Ti4200 boards?

I think I would like something like this setup in a dual boot machine. Just need to unload some older equipment, maybe a few hot rod parts and sneak it into the house  :Smile: 

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## EhobaX

You can pick this up on newegg for around 46 bucks.

Pretty good deal IMO.  I have two of these and they work great in Linux and Windoze.

EDIT:  Subject is very small.  GeForce2 GTS-VLast edited by EhobaX on Tue May 28, 2002 7:01 pm; edited 1 time in total

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## paulisdead

That's exactly what I've been eyeing is a Geforce4 TI4200 from Gainward.  I've had a Geforce2MX and a Geforce2TI from them, and both have worked great in Linux and Windows.  I'm not sure about the TI4200s, but I know a lot of their "Golden Sample" cards actually deviate from Nvidia's reference design by using higher quality RAM, so they make excellent overclockers, if you're into that.  I don't even have a golden sample Geforce2 TI, and I can take it from it's default 250core 400RAM, up to 295core and 500ram.

If you're lookin at a TI4200, you need to decide whether to get one with 64MB or 128MB of RAM.  A few newer games that use massively detailed outdoor maps, will run a lot better with 128MB.  On older games though, the 64MB cards have been known to run a hair faster.  You can get a 64MB golden sample that uses 3.5ns (almost all other TI4200s have 4ns RAM) memory for around $159 on newegg.  I'm gonna be getting the 128MB model, because I want it for TV, and newer games like Jedi Knight 2.

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## rommel

if you never use 3d buy almost what ever you want...but i wouldnt use anything but nvidia.....just for the support they offer for linux....i have a gf4ti4600 and it works great...also a gf3 and gf3 ti500 that all work well under linux with no issue..(i ahve also an ATi 8500 sitting in a bag next to me..totally useless).....the mx cards have had problems sometimes with drivers even under windows...even thought the driver architecture is supposedly unified the mx cards when i was using windows seemed to fair better witht eh 1x.xx releases rather then the 2x.xx that came out to support the gf3 and gf4 models...this would be an issue since the drivers offered for linux are not so varied as whats released for windows...but put some money toward a good gf card if you can...it wil wear for sometime before you need to upgrade.

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## JohnnyGTO

I figured out what I'm going to do. I want to move more and more of my business software to my Gentoo box, Goldmaine works with Wine and who needs MS Office when OpenOffice kicks ass  :Twisted Evil: 

So, I'm going to move my Matrox G550 to the Gentoo box as soon as I can get a Gainward nVIDIA GeForce4 Ti4200. The nVIDIA board will go into my 1g AMD box and dual boot so I can play with a fresh install of Gentoo and run games etc under windoze. Wish I could do it all with Linux but some stuff just doesn't work...  :Laughing: 

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## pjp

 *klieber wrote:*   

>  ... However, if you want to get nVidia-like performance out of them, you have to install their (closed source) drivers each and every time you compile a new kernel.  This is, IMO, a major pain in the arse.  
> 
> --kurt

 Much like alsa :curses at alsa:

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## klieber

 *kanuslupus wrote:*   

> Much like alsa :curses at alsa:

 

That, at least, should be fixed with the 2.6 kernel since alsa will then be included as part of the kernel.  (or you can fix it right now if you're brave enough to use a 2.5 dev kernel.  I'm not that brave, however.  :Smile: )

--kurt

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## JefP@@

Yow, 

I'm an nvidia user myself, just because they are good graphics cards & the drivers get the most possible development ... and it's just plain easy to install (it's true, it's a bit anoying you have to recompile the kernel module everytime you upgrade your kernel, but it takes like 2 secs  :Razz: )

Anyway, for those who hate closed source drivers etc, maybe you could consider the new gfx card of Matrox (called  Introducing Matrox Parhelia-512 ) Here's a link to it.

I was quite impressed about the features / performance. I thought I already saw some benchmarks on the internet, not realy sure anymore... read too many lately  :Wink: 

Grtz

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## rommel

its funny that ATi wants to develope paltform chipsets to compete with nforce...but they will alomost certainly only be windows compatable.....its amazing how a comapny can produce such good hardware and have a total lack of software supporting it....i will never buy another card from them....i waited months for them to develope their drivers for the 8500 for windows...LOL....too stupid..ok thats my little rank.

ciao

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## FINITE

I would have to put in a vote for Nvidaia. They support linux more than anyother 3d accelerated card company out there. The cards are good too.

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## mglauche

Recently my trusty old G400 did get smoked, and I'm looking for a good alternative card, with same good 2-d quality as the g400, right now i'm looking into the G550 or one of the radeon boards (because of the hardware mpg2 accel)

But i like to know how good is the 2-d quality and speed of a geforce-(2|3|4) compared to a g400 ?

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## leej

NVidia GEForce.

I got a ABIT Siluro T400 (Nvidia GEForce2 MX400 chipset) last week and tossed out a 2.5 year old ATI Rage Fury Pro AGP card.

*NEVER* has my system been so stable.  *NEVER* have GL accelerated applications worked so well.  *NEVER* have I had the pleasure of using such a fully supported GLX capable card under XFree before.  :Smile: 

No more freezes as with the ATI card.

Praise the lord. ;o))

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## lx

 *leej wrote:*   

> NVidia GEForce.
> 
> I got a ABIT Siluro T400 (Nvidia GEForce2 MX400 chipset) last week and tossed out a 2.5 year old ATI Rage Fury Pro AGP card.
> 
> *NEVER* has my system been so stable.  *NEVER* have GL accelerated applications worked so well.  *NEVER* have I had the pleasure of using such a fully supported GLX capable card under XFree before. 
> ...

 

'm somebody is sponserd by nvidia,   :Laughing:  . I use a asus v7100 card based on nvidia geforce mx/2 and I never had problems with linux (related to the card), but I bought the card because it was a good one and not because of linux and it's support (maybe I just got lucky).

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## jcmkk

nVidia really screwed up with the Ti4200.  Right now, the Ti4400 is the best deal in the high end nVidia lineup.  The 64MB Ti4200's are worthless. If you want 64MB, then you might as well get a GeForce 3.  You can get a name brand Ti4400 for $220.  The $159 4200's are stripped down OEM versions.  You don't even get nView.  Trust me, the 4400's are a steal right now.  I bought mine when it first came out, and payed $320.  The GeForce 4 variety of cards have a lot better 2D than their predecesors.  That's because they use better filters.  Don't get a GeForce 4 MX.  They are just a hyped up GeForce 2.  They don't even deserve the "4".  The GeForce 3 is a much better option if you are looking for a card in the low $100 range.  The main problem that people have trouble with the GeForce 4 Ti cards, is because they can't use the nv driver, only the official driver from nVidia.

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## ASCI Blue

I'm checking out that Gainward Ti4200 as well. Some 'doze benchies showing it once overclocked a little (done with the drivers no less) performs up there with the Ti4600. My educated guess for linux would be that the 4200 would perform as well as a 4400 in linux.

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## leej

 *Quote:*   

> 'm somebody is sponserd by nvidia,

 

LOL!  Seriously, I've had such an awful run with ATI cards that the feelings of elation after getting the NVidia should come as no surprise.

Another advantage I've noticed with the NVidia card is if you use NVidia's own proprietary AGP driver (instead of the Kernel/XFree AGPGart module).  With the XFree one, I'm badly affected by the Athlon bug which causes system freeze ups (unless I use the mem=nopentium performance hitting fix).

With NVidia's own AGP code (you have to insert an NvAGP option in XF86Config), I'm no longer affected by the Athlon bug and also gain about 10fps.  You have to recompile the kernel though, completely removing AGPGART otherwise the NVidia one doesn't work.

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