[OTs] free video hardware

[Joel Jaeggli]

On Sun, 23 Apr 2006, A.J. Bonnema wrote:

> Bruno Wolff III wrote:
>> On Sat, Apr 22, 2006 at 10:08:37 +0200,
>>   "A.J. Bonnema" <abonnema at xs4all.nl> wrote:
>> 
>>> What I am looking for is 3D performance. I will just go and see if I can 
>>> find a comparison of Radeon 9200 and other cards (like my radeon 800 XL).
>>> 
>> 
>> Another nice thing about 9200s is that they don't need a fan for the card,
>> so its quieter.
>>
>> 
> Cool. There is enough noise as it is.
>>> BTW my own card works well with the radeon driver for 2D, but I am looking 
>>> for 3D performance too (I don't know why, but I like playing games :{  )
>>> 
>> 
>> The driver for the 9200 uses the 3d features of the card. The reason things
>> are slower is that the card is an older model.
>>
>> 
> Ok. Do you know which driver we are talking about here? I assume you don't 
> mean the ati driver? Is it the radeon driver?

name of display: :0.0
display: :0  screen: 0
direct rendering: Yes
server glx vendor string: SGI
server glx version string: 1.2
server glx extensions:
     GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating,
     GLX_EXT_import_context, GLX_OML_swap_method, 
GLX_SGI_make_current_read,
     GLX_SGIS_multisample, GLX_SGIX_fbconfig
client glx vendor string: SGI
client glx version string: 1.4
client glx extensions:
     GLX_ARB_get_proc_address, GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_EXT_import_context,
     GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_MESA_allocate_memory,
     GLX_MESA_swap_control, GLX_MESA_swap_frame_usage, GLX_OML_swap_method,
     GLX_OML_sync_control, GLX_SGI_make_current_read, GLX_SGI_swap_control,
     GLX_SGI_video_sync, GLX_SGIS_multisample, GLX_SGIX_fbconfig,
     GLX_SGIX_pbuffer, GLX_SGIX_visual_select_group
GLX extensions:
     GLX_ARB_get_proc_address, GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_EXT_import_context,
     GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_MESA_allocate_memory,
     GLX_MESA_swap_control, GLX_MESA_swap_frame_usage, GLX_OML_swap_method,
     GLX_SGI_video_sync, GLX_SGIS_multisample, GLX_SGIX_fbconfig
OpenGL vendor string: Tungsten Graphics, Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa DRI R200 20040929 AGP 1x 
x86/MMX+/3DNow!+/SSE2 TCL
OpenGL version string: 1.3 Mesa 6.2.1
OpenGL extensions:

> The card being slower is no problem, as long as it has about the same 3D 
> capabilities for rendering in games, albeit at a slower speed.

The driver doesn't support s3 texture compression which is a requirement 
for most modern first person shooters, the shader model is primitive, some 
extensions are emulated in software.

It actually works with most opensource games, most opensource and 
commercial applications requiring openGL support and many games from the 
DOOM2 era but isn't usable with modern games requiring a lot of 
horsepower.

I have geforce 7900gt in the windows box that's set aside for a gaming... 
and the two graphics cards might as well be from different planets. That 
said the radeon 9250 is more than adequate for light gl applications, lots 
of video and drving high-performace displays(it's connected to a dvi port 
on an acer 24" 1920x1200 lcd).


>> If you buy a 9200, stay away from the SE cards.
>> 
> Why?
>> Also note that free software support for ATI r300 based cards is being 
>> worked
>> on. I don't know the exact state of things, but my impression is that the
>> the driver is usable now.
>>
>> 
> I am not clear on the series in ATI. FC5 identified my card as r430. Is the 
> 9200 one of the r300 based cards?

9200 is an r280

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV280 [Radeon 9200 
PRO] (rev 01)
01:00.1 Display controller: ATI Technologies Inc: Unknown device 5940 (rev 
01)


r300 is more like x300/x400



> Guus.
>
>

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Joel Jaeggli  	       Unix Consulting 	       joelja at darkwing.uoregon.edu
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