Xfree86 & PEX -- Which PC graphics card?

Xfree86 & PEX -- Which PC graphics card?

Post by Jonathan H. N. Ch » Sun, 16 Jan 1994 00:46:16



[ This is a repost. I don't think the previous message got out. ]

I am thinking of buying a PC. It will initially be used for developing some
animation software as part of my research. I plan to run linux with Xfree86
and write the software using PEXlib. (Hopefully, then I can run it both on
PCs and the university Suns, and it seems as good a standard to use as any.)

Questions:

1) What are the important criteria in selecting a graphics card for running
   X11 programs that use PEXlib? I would guess the criteria are different
   from text-in-windows applications, but perhaps the differences are dwarfed
   by the time spent in the pipeline before PEX even considers displaying
   the pixels. Enlighten me, please.

2) What chipsets/cards are recommended? The Xfree86-benchmarks summary
   posted recently that compared Xfree86 servers running on different
   chipsets showed some of the "best" to be:

   xstones    chipset
     120+     #9 GXE Level 12  (cost?)
     123      Diamond Stealth Pro
     102      Actix Ultra+  (cost?)
      89      Diamond Stealth 24
      76      Orchid Fahrenheit VA

   Are these benchmark results relevant, ie. would these cards be among the
   best to use for my needs? If not, which cards are recommended, and why?

3) The Western Digital WD90C33 chipset is supplied as standard with one
   of the machines I am considering. How does it compare with those above?
   How well (if at all) is it supported by Xfree86?

4) Does PCI have a future (cf. Betamax--VHS, OS/2--Windows)?
   If I go for a PCI machine instead of VESA, are good cards are available
   for it NOW? Should I just stick with a VESA machine? (I guess a lot of
   my decision on this will depend on availability of the card if it turns
   out the the WD90C33 is not so good.)

5) Given a particular card, what does extra video memory get me?
   More colours? Faster screen updates? Higher resolution? ...?

Please email replies to me directly if possible. The news admin was
muttering that news might become (more) unreliable while they change
to INN(?) so I don't trust posted messages to reach here.

thank you,

-jonathan

--
Jonathan H N Chin, 5 kyu | Dept. of *netics, | "Respondeo, etsi mutabor"
                         | University of Reading |


 
 
 

1. Which graphics card & sound card would be recommended for a new pc

I'm looking at getting a new PC which will be running both linux (have yet
to work out which distribution) and NT. While I don't expect help on driver
information for the NT side I would appreciate advice on which graphic &
sound cards either don't work or only partially work with linux.

On the graphics side I am thinking of a creative labs banshee, a matrox
millennium G200 or mystique G200 or the new riva card.

On the sound side I'm thinking of the soundblaster awe 64 value pci.

Any advice would be appreciated

Cheers

Paul

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