Shader model trouble

[Wield_II]

Originally Posted by Znurre

ATI is (still) not really recommended for Linux users, from my experience, although the drivers are catching up slowly.

@op:
I would recommend a GTX 460, great performance for the price, and you get the good Linux driver support as usual from NVidia.
You should be able to get one with 768mb VRAM for just a bit more than 100€.

You can see a benchmark here, showing NVidia GeForce GTX 460 vs two ATI Radeon HD 5700-series graphic cards.
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...n_hd6870&num=6

Not sure how ATI is doing for linux, Regnum has always ran perfect on windows.

[Cuchulainn]

if you play windows games under wine, NVIDIA is the better choice for Linux. Otherwise ATI/AMD is not considerable worse IMHO.

Also make sure that you don't buy a graphic card which needs more power than you power supply can offer, except if you want to replace it too. A GTX 460 needs up to 160W. Regnum Online also runs fine on graphic cards which consume about half of this, even if shader 4 and OpenGL is used.

[Vaylos]

Windows user here.

Using an NVidia 9800GTX+ Shaders 4, zero problems. I didn't want to go with the latest/greatest/most expensive card when I built the machine in Jan of 2010, but wanted a good card with a good reputation that would last awhile. (couldn't afford going hog-wild on building a new machine back then, and surely can't now lol)

Once in a great while if I've been playing several hours nonstop, I'll get a hiccup and some garbled graphics, but a quick alt-tab fixes the issue, and I continue playing without any problem.

Also, I second the notion of making sure the PSU is up to snuff. Not just the wattage on the box, but also that the rails are getting good stable clean power.

[Arafails]

Originally Posted by Znurre

ATI is (still) not really recommended for Linux users, from my experience, although the drivers are catching up slowly.

Well as of about eight months ago, I personally recommend ATi cards over nVidia. This is because while the nVidia drivers seem to work better in specific test cases that people use to compare GPUs in general, the hardware is assembled comparatively poorly and nVidia's quality control appears to be run by chimpanzees. That and the last (non-overclocked) ATi I've seen burn a hole through itself was a Rage 128.... ATi's slightly poor driver trumps nVidias somewhat poor hardware.
But this is just my experience, of course.

[Znurre]

Originally Posted by Arafails

Well as of about eight months ago, I personally recommend ATi cards over nVidia. This is because while the nVidia drivers seem to work better in specific test cases that people use to compare GPUs in general, the hardware is assembled comparatively poorly and nVidia's quality control appears to be run by chimpanzees. That and the last (non-overclocked) ATi I've seen burn a hole through itself was a Rage 128.... ATi's slightly poor driver trumps nVidias somewhat poor hardware.
But this is just my experience, of course.

I can agree with you on this.
To be completely honest, I've been having some hardware issues with my GTX 460, and by doing some searching I know I am not alone by far.
This is why I would like to switch to an ATi card if I could, but there are also just so many things you lose by using ATi on Linux right now.

For example, if you are using a rolling release distro like me you're out of luck.
ATi are always slow with putting out versions for new versions of XOrg and the kernel, while NVidia has support for them for several weeks in their beta drivers and the support has usually landed in their stable version before the stable release of XOrg and the kernel.

Also, you would lose VDPAU, probably providing the best hardware accelerated video playback on Linux.
I don't know if it's fixed yet, but tearing has also always been an issue with the ATi drivers for my friends, even with VSync enabled.
I think I read something on Phoronix about this being fixed in the latest version, but I have no idea if that has been released yet.

And of course, as Cuchulainn mentioned, the ATi drivers are known for having severe issues with some games running trough wine.

[NotScias]

Originally Posted by Znurre

I don't know if it's fixed yet, but tearing has also always been an issue with the ATi drivers for my friends, even with VSync enabled.

It's 100% fixed now. There's a dedicated option to disable video tearing in the catalyst control panel.

Catalyst drivers are progressing, slowly but surely.

[Narzoul]

Originally Posted by Znurre

I don't know if it's fixed yet, but tearing has also always been an issue with the ATi drivers for my friends, even with VSync enabled.

Enabled where? I don't know about Linux, but on Windows forcing vsync on in Catalyst Control Center does nothing for RO. However, there is a vg_vertical_sync setting in game.cfg, setting it to 1 works for me even if vsync is forced off in drivers.