VMD-L Mailing List

From: Benjamin Goldsteen (bzgnyc_at_yahoo.com)
Date: Wed Mar 03 2004 - 22:23:31 CST

Hi Luis,

It looks like you are using the DRI/MESA OpenGL
drivers. I've heard these are neither optimal nor
dependable. I believe most people get the best OpenGL
results using nVidia's driver with nVidia cards and
ATI's driver with ATI cards.

However, your choices with the ATI FireGL E1 graphics
card are somewhat more complicated. Technically, the
E1 is only supported by Dell and Dell's latest driver
specific to that card dates back to XFree86 4.2.

On the other hand, it appears that ATI uses the same
driver package for the FireGL 8700 and later. You
might try downloading an ATI driver and seeing if it
works with the E1. It wouldn't be "supported" but I
bet it would still work.

If you go with Dell's driver, start with the version
for the ATI Fire GL X1 128MB under Redhat Linux 8.0 on
Dell's support site. It specifically mentions the E1
card in the details section.

If the Dell driver is too old and the ATI driver is
not compatible with the E1 then you will probably be
better off to swap in another card. The Quadro4 FX
1000 is a good card but you might find it pricey. The
Wildcat VP760 with the XiG Xserver is a powerful
combination but then you aren't using XFree86 at all.
Others on this list are probably in a better position
to recommend capable but less expensive combinations.

Best wishes,
Ben

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