Re: Old NVIDIA card, new FreeBSD = failure?

On 2021-06-27 04:26, Greg V wrote:
> On June 26, 2021 10:11:42 PM UTC, Robert Huff <roberthuff@rcn.com> wrote:
>> 
>> Greg V <greg@unrelenting.technology>:
>> 
>>>   Robert Huff <roberthuff@rcn.com>:
>>> 
>>>   >	(For anyone in my position: I _think_ the RX 460 and above
>>>   >support GCN 2.1, which is what I _think_ is the bottom-end
>>>   >specification.  Cards matching this number seem to start at about
>>>   >US $50.)
>>> 
>>>   GCN is the name of the GPU architecture, not something a GPU
>>>   "supports"..
>> 
>> 	Got that; the "support" is from the software.
>> 	I have two conflicting desires:
>> 	a) I want to run modern applications ...
>> 			on the latest stable version of X ...
>> 			using an actively maintained and
>> 				improved version of amdgpu/drm ...
>> 			working with reasonably high-performance hardware.
> 
> Yes, all you need is a GCN GPU. Avoid the really old pre-GCN (TeraScale and 
> older)
> architectures and you'll be fine.
> 
>> 	b) I have a very limited budget, and would ideally like to be
>> 		able to use this on older systems - say ones with a PCIe 2.0
>> 		expansion slot.
> 
> No conflict here: PCI Express generations are all backward and forward 
> compatible.
> You can run the newest gen4 cards in gen2 slots just fine (obviously at gen2
> bandwidth).
> 
> Similarly it's all compatible between different lane counts, e.g. you can 
> shove an
> x16 card into an x4 slot (if it's not an open ended slot.. it can be made
> open-ended with a rotary tool :D)
You can also paint contacts on the card to enable/disable "features" as 
required for a
given scenario. :D. Had to do that to get a newer Nvidia card to work in an 
old Mac.