ATI or Nvidia - is one generally 'better' for linux?

Diss

Diss

Diss

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ATI or Nvidia - is one generally 'better' for linux?

not necessarily for pure performance - but driver support etc

am thinking of getting an ATI 4870 - will this be OK of Linux 3D games such as enemy territory quake wars in Ubuntu?

thanks

Diss
 
I have a g92 8800 GTS and have found the 3d modes to be pretty good, but the 2d performance is pretty sucky for some reason - although there are work-arounds like using a compositing WM.

It's very easy to configure multiple monitors with the nVidia drivers and I've heard that it's more tricky with ATI, but can't confirm.

AMD/ATI have claimed that they're going to open source their drivers which should be a big help, but AFAIK they haven't done anything about it yet.
 
Nvidia generally has better linux drivers. Btw, 4870 would be a complete overkill - there is no Direct3D in Linux, and no bang for buck advantage to be had from additional shaders etc in those few opengl games Linux supports. Simple 7900GTX will make anything under linux fly while bottom line 8800GT should do ETQW justice.
 
thanks guys

i have a 7900GT at the moment which i know is fine

however its dual boot with vista (or XP) so need a good card for some of the windows games i have - tje ATI cards seem to be good value at the moment (for win games) but if they are a problem under linux will probably stick with nvidia

may well stick with what i have - will see how things go

Diss
 
It would be a good idea to wait a bit. atm nvidia has the edge, but if AMD really goes open source with the linux drivers, there is no doubt which manufacturer would be better for Linux :)
 
Give it a years time and I expect ATI/AMD support to be pretty darn good. As said, they are beginning to open up documentation on their latest products (3XXX series etc, unsure about 4XXX series).
 
ATI have already released, and continue to update, proprietry drivers, but not all cards are supported as yet.
 
Dun dun dunnnnn

after a bit of googleing of the subject (ati 4870 linux) iv found some reviews of it! (yeah im trying to chose too as i want to rebuild with a fancy new card and do Gentoo propperly with vista on the side)

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=ati_radeonhd_4870&num=1 generally concludes that though its cool theres linux support out the box for the new cards, the 4850 isnt any better than the 3870 and the 4870 is faster but is driver limited (gtx 260/280 arnt in it as the review is a little old).

Annoyingly i cant find any gtx 260/280 linux reviews (yet i might just buy it n try it out as i like my 7800gt and could just not be dearing for once..)
 
bump...

pingwing did you buy a gtx at all and try it out? I'm looking to do a new build very soon and i've been pondering ati vs. nvidia for linux, leaving me tempted to get a gtx 260.

Or is there any more news on the open source driver front for ati?
 
Support has gotten better for ATI now, last year I could not get any kind of dual screen or compiz support on my X1950XTX but now with the latest ATI drivers I can in ubuntu and any other distro based on ubuntu.
 
Good to hear they're improving, but are they on par with nvidia yet? (especially for the newer cards)

Looking on the Ati driver site I can't see that the latest 48xx series are supported...
 
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