On Friday 01 November 2002 14:09, jpearson3 wrote:

Hello,

I see a lot of recommendations for Radeon cards on this forum (particularly the 7500 (from Ben) and the 8500). So as I am tired of playing with Nvidia drivers under SuSE, I went down town today to pick one up.

I've never used radeon cards but I have decided to get one for the desktop I sort of plan to build. I have read tons of reviews, ratings, comments and analysis. The resume? If you don't use benchmarking tool, you will not notice the difference. The 3D cards market is driven by people who use their computers to benchmark software/hardware. An increase of 10fps(frames per second) at the margin could cost additional $100-$150. Few mention though that the software (mostly games) that supports all this incredibly fast and new technology does not exist yet, and when it will come to be, the hardware for it will be pretty much an average piece. Another information I picked up is that "build by" cards often exist only in press releases. The whole thing is so much vaporware it makes me wonder why microsoft didn't get into this market yet. Maybe they feel a little old to play their own game on a new playground. They do agitate the crowd though with directX. I cannot say anything about the quality of the drivers though, but as you have mentioned, many reputable people recommend it over nvidia. Serguei

Much to my surprise it appears to be impossible to pick up a real " built by " Radeon 7500 (or 8500) video card. All available Radeon cards are " powered by " clones of Radeon card, the most popular brand by far being " PowerColor ". Now I know that there are differences in the BIOS and the memory speed among the various " built by " and " powered by " Radeon video cards. What I don't know these and their other differences affect their use or performance with SuSE.

So here is are questions: Can anyone give me a report on using " PowerColor " Radeon 7500 or 8500 or other " powered by " clones with SuSE?

Do the XFREE86 drivers work as well for the is " powered by " versions (clone) cards as they do for the " built by " cards?

Is the performance comparable?

I am asking all these questions - I can always keep using my Nvidia card - and I really don't want any more problems setting up my video configuration with SuSE.

TIA Ciao James Pearson E mail (mai) : james.pearson@wanadoo.fr E mail (bur) : james.pearson@wanadoo.com Web page: http://perso.wanadoo.fr/j.pearson/

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