the best graphicscard for FreeBSD

[Thomas Ludwig]

Maybe a little OT, but:

IMHO the 3D-acceleration issue is too much considered a gamer's
problem: There are software producers around like us that use FreeBSD
and Linux for their 3D visualization programs.  As an example, display
of large CFD models needs an excellent VM and good 3D acceleration.
For us and our clients the overall quality (stability, correctness,
speed) of the 3D part of X & co. is an important criterium of the
platform, as is the stability of the kernel, the quality of the file
system, manpages, etc.

On SGI, we had excellent 3D support, but price-performance, stability,
and security were less good.  On BSD and Linux we have the latter, but
are running in all kinds of problems with 3D, especially when using
multiple OpenGL contexts in multiple threads, off-screen rendering,
etc.  

Testing is quite intricate, and there are many subtle ways to screw
things there (e.g. recent xorg and xfree86 crashes X server during
off-screen rendering).  Stuff like glxgears is not sufficient for that
purpose...

--
Thomas Ludwig
SMR SA                     Phone:  +41-32-3452124
P.O. Box 4014              Fax:    +41-32-3452120
CH-2500 Bienne 4           E-mail: ludwig at smr.ch