[mythtv-users] ATI vs NVidia card conclusion
Bill Omer
bill.omer at gmail.com
Mon Jul 2 14:32:37 UTC 2007
On 7/2/07, Michelle Dupuis <support at ocg.ca> wrote:
>
>
> After all of the help I received, I thought I would update the list on how I
> made out. For those considering a video card purchase for use in Myth (or
> Linux in general)...read on
>
> Background: I bought a $200+ ATI video card to use with my Myth system. The
> various ATI press releases dating back to 2001 claiming Linux support made
> me feel pretty secure that it would work great (I've used ATI cards with
> Windows for years and was pleased with the results).
>
> Although the card booted up great under Linux, it was little more than a
> dumb vesa card. After lots of struggles to get the video driver in, I
> finally got acceleration going. Still, there is no ATI knowledge base (with
> Linux related data), no ATI tel/email support for Linux, and performance of
> the card was still poor (jittery, etc). I wasted lots of time looking for
> files, replacing files the ATI driver missed, etc. (The ATi config also
> crashes making xorg.conf setup difficult). In the end the card was still
> unusable for video playback - despite all diagnostics reporting the ATI was
> installed and working great.
>
> I then bought a $150 NVidia video card, and it was completely up and running
> in 10 minutes. It removed all ATI driver references (basic, acceleration,
> GL), loaded all drivers correctly. etc. (even in light of the fact that I
> had a custom compiled kernel). All video acceleration worked great, and
> Myth playback was smooth. Even motion compensation was working. The nvidia
> config program is very good at modifying xorg.conf while preserving custom
> settings (even commenting out old stuff).
>
> Wow...what a difference. In the remote chance that anyone from ATI/AMD is
> on this list..please forward this internally!
Nvidia has the best Linux support, hands down. Their driver is rock
solid and the installation is a real blessing. I'll never use ATI in
Linux if I can help it, especially on a Myth system.
The old FX5200 is the best card for a frontend imo. Fanless, has DVI
and s-video, supports XvMC... just doesn't get any better.
-Bill
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