Graphics card recommendation

[jgrosch at es.net]

> On Wed, 14 Oct 2009 08:31:00 -0700
> freebsd at t41t.com freebsd at t41t.com (freebsd at t41t.com) replied:
>
>>I'm in need of a new graphics card for a new computer, that I hope will
>>run FreeBSD (with a strong preference for AMD64) and compiz-fusion on a
>>dual-monitor, which I believe means the 3D acceleration has to be in
>>good working order. I don't really care whether the graphics driver is
>>binary, or freely-licensed.
>>
>>Has anyone bought a recent graphics card that they know to be working
>>in x64 with 3D acceleration?
>>
>>I've heard Nvidea support is probably better than ATI. Some of the GPU
>>choices I see are like GeForce 9400/9500/9600 GT, GSO, and/or GTX+
>>series or the GTS/GTX 2** series. Are some of those better-supported
>>than others?
>>
>>I didn't see anything recent on this list or the website, and there
>>wasn't much response on IRC. Recommendations would be appreciated.
>>Thanks!
>
> nVidia (AMD64) is not supported in 7.x versions of FreeBSD as far as I
> know. There was some talk of it being supported in 8.x, but I have
> not heard from anyone actually doing so. All my machines use nvidea
> cards, and the lack of support for it in FBSD, even after an extended
> period of time, is a real PIA.

nVidia support on i386 FreeBSD is not much better. One can use an nVidia
card with 7.1 but under 7.2 one hits the dreaded mtrr error. A Google
search finds many posts on how to fix this but none of them seem to work.
I could be wrong but nVidia does not seem to be very interested in working
with the FreeBSD project to address these problems. ATI also seems to have
a problem with mtrr under 7.2. I'm still trying to sort this out. I hope
8.0 will address these problems.


Josef