[GRLUG] NVidia or ATI

[Tim Schmidt]

On Thu, Nov 13, 2008 at 4:40 PM, Michael Mol <mikemol at gmail.com> wrote:
> These days, which is more reliable under Linux? ATI or NVidia video
> cards?  I'm going to piece together a system between Thanksgiving and
> Christmas, and I wanted a dual-DVI video card, one output to the TV,
> the other to my monitor. Otherwise, I would have stuck with onboard
> video.

Oh, and Michael...

Onboard video can often do what you're asking.

Our workstations at MTD use Intel onboard graphics with what's called
an SDVO or ADD2 card.  They plug into a PCI Express slot, but consist
of barely more than some connectors and a couple voltage
level-shifting ICs.  They work with all motherboards with Intel
integrated graphics, and come in a variety of output configurations.
In our case, we're using dual-DVI cards.  They cost about $40.  Single
DVI cards (which you can use in tandem with a motherboard that already
has DVI-out - pretty common these days actually) cost about $15.
There are also cards with S-Video and VGA outputs.

They _all_ work with Linux - regardless of motherboard or distribution
choice (so long as it has an Intel chipset with integrated graphics,
and a PCI-E x16 slot).

The wonders of having freely available documentation.

;)

--tim