"J.Drews" wrote:
On Monday 01 October 2001 04:35 pm, you wrote:
How does Linux deal with Nvidia video cards? I am thinking of getting a Dell laptop and they come with that card, so far as I can tell.
Hi Dennis:
I would not get a computer with a nVIDIA card. Here is why:
1) While nVIDIA cards do give excellent graphics they tend to screw up other applications like 3D drawings in Star Offices StarDraw. Also, screensavers sometimes malfunction.
Never had this problem. Sounds like misconfigured board.
2) nVIDIA cards sometimes causes hang on logout.
If you get the latest drivers and SuSE/kernel this one is gone.
3) Certain applications, when run on an nVIDIA card, like Gtulpas and Xmms cause serious crashes.
Again sounds like something is misconfigured or xmms is old. It had a general 3d problem with it's pluggin.
4) You may not be able to return to your original session after switching to a virtual console.
Same problem as #2. It's fixed.
5) Certain applications that use anti aliased fonts (GV) do not work properly, if an nVIDIA card is installed.
AA fonts work fine with the NVdriver
6) nVIDIA drivers are not part of the SuSE distribution; you have to download them and install them. A kernel patch is also required.
It's a piece of cake. Just remember to always to the tarbals not the rpms. No kernel PATCH was ever required.
7) The provided software drivers are closed source so their can be no check, by XFree86.org, on whether they will work properly.
This is the real problem I see here. Fortunatly the Nvidia people pretty much stay on top of things and release driver updates fairly often.
I had a nVIDIA card installed in my computer for 18 months. Whether I installed SuSE, Mandrake or RedHat made no difference. There was always some glitch. If nVIDIA could not provide satisfactory drivers in that 18 month period, they never will. nVIDIA is a serious gamming card. For instance, you can use your nVIDIA card to play video roulette, with Sax2, for hours on end! Video roulette is where you constantly reconfigure XF86Config in an attempt to get the pestiferous nVIDIA to work. Basically, if you like protracted configuration problems then nVIDIA is for you.
Just remember to always configure without glx/nvidia 3d when using sax2 and then add it in manually to XF86config afterwards, I wouldn't hesitate to get one. They are greate cards. The GEforce-3 is unbeatable by anyone elses card. -- Mark Hounschell dmarkh@cfl.rr.com