Re: HARDWARE: Open-Source-Friendly Graphics Cards -- Viable?

From: Zan Lynx
Date: Wed Oct 20 2004 - 20:37:17 EST


On Wed, 2004-10-20 at 16:48 -0700, Timothy Miller wrote:
> I'm posting from home, so this won't look right. Sorry.
>
> Anyhow, Andre Eisenbach said this:
>
> >>>
> If the graphics card mostly supports 2D initially, it's really not
> much better then just about any off the shelf graphics card with VESA
> drivers. As in, the hardware doesn't need to be open for just that.
> Most (all?) the frustration in Linux graphics card land comes from
> unsupported/closed 3D drivers.
> <<<
>
> I have tried using cards with VESA drivers before, and I found it to be
> very painful. Certainly, you can turn off certain features and get a
> reasonably useful UI experience, but dragging windows around with "show
> window contents while moving" enabled is painfully slow, even with AGP
> 4x. Just imagine doing it over PCI.
>
> When it comes to desktop applications, the FIRST thing you need is good
> 2D acceleration. In fact, that's really the ONLY thing. OpenOffice
> does not need to use OpenGL. GNOME doesn't need to use OpenGL. In
> fact, for the most part, they don't bother. There are some instances
> where they use OpenGL, but most of what a workstation user does fits
> squarely within all the functionality supplied by Xlib, which is
> entirely 2D.
[snip]

My opinion, for what its worth:

Do 3D first and only. 2D is a subset of 3D. Implement as much of
OpenGL as you can in hardware and software can emulate any 2D interface
desired.

I agree that existing graphics cards do 2D just fine. I can get a ATI
card for $20 that does all the 2D I need. But 2D isn't enough for me.
I spend $400 on one Nvidia card. Maybe I'm not the average, common
user, but users like me have the highest profit margin. :-)

I'm a pragmatic user. I'd like full-featured Open Source drivers for my
Nvidia card but I use the binary because they work really well and for
me, (excellent_performance - closed_drivers) > (crappy_performance +
open_drivers).

If it can be done well enough to run Doom 3 in 640x480 at 20 fps for
less than $500, I'll buy one. That's the performance level where I'd
consider sacrificing 60 fps for the open drivers.

Of course, in 5 years I'll expect 120 fps so its definitely a moving
target.
--
Zan Lynx <zlynx@xxxxxxx>

Attachment: signature.asc
Description: This is a digitally signed message part