On Tue, 23 Mar 2010, John Elliott wrote:
Can anyone recommend an inexpensive PCI-Express video card which is well supported by X11 and does not require ATI drivers? Resolution required is 1920x1080 or better.
Hmm. Not clear from your message if you are implying that you want a ATI radeon type card with a FLOSS driver, or something else?
The nvidia-based cards work for me. I was not a fan of the nvidia closed source drivers for years. But after reading an interview about them about the shared code between their different platforms, I am more accepting. Nvidia does at least keep the drivers updated with features for linux.
John, you mentioned 1920x1080. Are you planning to watch HD video / MPEG streams? Nvidia drivers support VDPAU ( http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/VDPAU ). I installed an inexpensive nvidia card (GT210) on my mythtv box two months ago and it _really_ works. Watching HDTV takes almost no CPU at all with VDPAU and the GPU doing most of the work.
Pccyber has GT210s for (oh my - on sale now, for $36.77 with rebate) Does that meet your 'inexpensive' requirement? It's a good price even without the rebate.
There might be even better deals, but I would not hesitate to look at this card specifically, and pccyber's stock in nvidia cards.
Brett