video card for amd64

[Mike Meyer]

In <346a80220610231612o2bc29336id0d4e9795715b7ca at mail.gmail.com>, Coleman Kane <zombyfork at gmail.com> typed:
> On 10/23/06, Dieter <freebsd at sopwith.solgatos.com> wrote:
> >
> > So what video card do you recommend for:
> >
> >         FreeBSD 6.x
> >         AMD64
> >         PCIe
> >         drivers with source (no binary security holes)
> >         XvMC
> >         DVI-I plus s-video
> >
> >         no gaming required or desired
> >         no eye-candy GUI required or desired
> >         can probably live without 3D
> 
> 
> I recommend an ATI card. Something slightly older like the X300 or similar.
> I have one running dual-head on a 6.1 box with a dual-core EM64T
> (FreeBSD/amd64) and it works well.

According to the MythTV page on XvMC, ATI doesn't have hardware
support for it. The Intel and Via chipsets do, but you can't get a
PCIe card with those on it. The proprietary NVidia driver does as
well, but that means no sources and either no FreeBSD or no amd64.

Of course, the same page also says that XvMC has problems, and that
the easy solution - if you have a fast enough CPU - is to simply turn
it off. "Fast enough" depends on what you're trying to play back. I've
played back 1080i on an P4 with EM64T enabled, so "fast enough"
doesnt' seem like much of a stretch.

	<mike
-- 
Mike Meyer <mwm at mired.org>		http://www.mired.org/consulting.html
Independent Network/Unix/Perforce consultant, email for more information.