[opensuse-xorg] Shopping for a new card: DVI, rotation, non-AGP, free drivers
Dear list members, I want to upgrade the graphics card for my second display. The requirements are that it must be using a PCI or PCI-express slot and must support rotation, currently with a 19" TFT (1280*1024). My applications are purely 2D (software development, office, mail, browsing; no graphical games or 3D construction). I checked the X.org web pages, but they seem to mostly deal with 3D and acceleration, I found few info about rotation. While I appreciate "xrandr" to be available for runtime changes, I hope to not need it - this is a stationary machine with stable display settings, so I want to define my setup in files ("xorg.conf"). Currently, I am using a Matrox G 200 (PCI) which works fine (software-wise) using X and the "mga" drivers coming with Debian 5.0 ("stable"). However, it supports only a VGA connection (I would prefer DVI, the monitor has both), and the hardware seems to become flaky: Only on the second initialization of X do I get the full resolution (1280 * 1024), on the first start the X log claims insufficient video RAM (only 2 of 4 MB), and the X server falls back onto 1280 * 800 (?). (Ctrl-Alt-Backspace fixes that, but it is annoying.) I want to use a card with passive cooling, the machine has 2 case fans (in addition to the CPU and power supply fans), so the card should not bring its own. Recent experiments with the Catalyst driver for my on-board Radeon HD 4290 were not too positive, I really want all settings to be stored in "xorg.conf" so that it is easy to backup, modify, and check them. (That's why I decided against using that HD 4290 dual-head, "vesa" works fine in single-head landscape but won't rotate.) Also, I expect software upgrades to be easier if I need not keep a proprietary driver in sync. So the criteria are: - DVI output (single-head is sufficient) - resolution at the very least 1280*1024, preferred 2048*1536 at 60 Hz (or better) - passive cooling - PCI slot or PCI-express - free driver supports rotation, or well-kept proprietary driver using "xorg.conf" (second-best only) What I do not need: - Gaming or 3D support - TV output - VGA output My questions: - I know the free "mga" supports rotation (I used that for MGA 200 and MGA 450), so Matrox cards are an option. - Stefan Dirsch reported here (early 2009) the same holds for free "radeonhd", so (older) Radeon cards are an option, too. I assume that still holds? (Stefan recommended cards based on Radeon 1xxx, explicitly the 1650. Checking on ebay, 1650 seems to always come with a fan, but 1550 and 1300 to be passive. Correct? Will rotation work?) - What about nVidia - does the free "nv" or "nouveau" support rotation? For which chips / cards? The company describes "nvidia" to always support rotation - comments? (source: ftp://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/256.44/README/xconfigoptions.html - In notebooks, Intel graphics seem to play fine with Linux, but on the "intellinuxgraphics" web page it looks to be all notebook (chipset) graphics. Are there PCI(-express) graphics cards using Intel chips? - Until now, my graphic cards were using PCI, but the new machine has just 2 PCI slots and 4 PCI-e ones (2 x1, 2 x16). I would prefer the new card to be PCI-e, best x1, so that it doesn't require a scarce resource in case I add more cards. Are there any functional differences (not performance) associated with the slot a graphics card is using? Thanks for your comments / recommendations / warnings, Jörg -- Joerg Bruehe - persoenliche Aeusserung / speaking only for himself mailto:joerg.bruehe@web.de -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-xorg+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-xorg+help@opensuse.org
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Joerg Bruehe