The non-evil graphics card

[Christopher Halse Rogers]

On 6/25/08, Markus Hitter <mah at jump-ing.de> wrote:
> Hello all,
>
>  probably some of you already read that statement of kernel developers
>  about the opening of graphics drivers: <https://
>  www.linuxfoundation.org/en/Kernel_Driver_Statement>
>
>  Currently I'm using Intel's integrated graphics (G965, G31), but I'm
>  about to upgrade to a "real" graphics card.
>
>  Which vendor should I prefer (or stay with the G31) in order to
>  support proper open source graphics drivers? Is there a
>  contraindication if I want to use CUDA-like technologies (I'm doing
>  FEA, CFD) ?
>
For high-performance graphics cards you're pretty much limited to ATI
or nVidia.  This makes the choice nice and easy: ATI/AMD have released
specs, and employ at least one Xorg developer.  nVidia have done
neither, and (unsurprisingly) haven't responded to nouveau's
request(s) for documentation.

You still won't get a performant open source 3D driver out of the box
with an ATI card, at least not yet.  But you'll stand a better chance
of getting one with ATI.

CUDA is an nVidia-specific technology IIRC, but I believe there's an
ATI equivalent.