On Mon, 3 Jan 2005 21:03:11 -0800 (PST), Lin Tse Hsu <evfreek@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > --- Markku Kolkka <markkukolkka@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > > Are you an antiques collector, or do you have any > > other sensible > > reason for wasting time and money on obsolete > > graphics hardware? > > > > The computer is an old Dell without an AGP slot. I > had always heard that Linux tends to run better than > Windows on older hardware. Also, the very new > hardware often has more bugs associated with it. > > Note that these cards are all listed on www.tldp.org > as supported, and they all are recognized and > configured. It is just that some don't work, and > others are unstable to varying degrees. > > > > > Yes, get a video card that's currently manufactured. > > The X > > developers aren't likely to spend much effort on > > developing > > drivers for ancient cards. > > > > -- > > There also seem to be a lot of bug reports for newer > cards, especially ATI or Nvidia (like the ATI Rage 128 > problem). Does this mean that if I try one of the > listed cards that are currently manufactured, as long > as I steer clear of the ones in the FAQ. > > And, I think that you meant "maintaining" rather than > "developing" drivers, since all the drivers for the > cards I have tried have already been developed. They > appear in the hardware compatibility lists, and they > appear in the README's for xorg, but, they may be > "less" supported due to age. This makes sense, but > buying 5 different modern cards and having them all > fail is an expensive proposition. Perhaps I will try > just one. > > Are there any suggestions for a PCI video card which > is "more" rather than "less" supported? All the ones > at the store seem to be AGP cards. I'd suggest a GeForce4 MX 440 or MX 4000. I have a 440 and a 440 Go (laptop) and they both work great with the nVidia binary drivers. You can find both AGP and PCI versions for not too much. Check out www.newegg.com Looks like you can get one there for about $50. You can also search for cards with PCI interface to see all of what is there. I have only had experience with nVidia, but it looks like the ATI cards are about the same price. A GeForce2 MX400 and a Radeon 7000 are a little less expensive, but not much. The MX 400 should be fine, maybe someone who has had experience can tell you about the Radeon 7000. Jonathan
