7.3. Which Video Card Should I Buy? (1 March 2004)
The answer was very difficult last year, but here's my take on it these days:
All GeForce cards require a proprietary driver which will "taint" your kernel. However, all ATI cards beyond the Radeon 9200 also require a proprietary driver that will "taint" your kernel as well.
nVidia has proven that they care enough about Linux to write and maintain current and very high quality drivers for Linux. Even when ATI open sourced its video card driver, they played the "we'll make Linux developers write our drivers for us" game. Their current proprietary drivers are below par.
The current Radeon 9800 barely beats out the GeForce 5900 in benchmarks and card specs, but Linux users won't benefit from this because of driver issues..
ATI has a very long history of dropping support for hardware as fast as they can get away with it.
On MS Windows, when the GeForce beat out its main competing Radeon, the review claimed that the Radeon generally had better visuals. I have no idea how this translates to Linux.
Don't get the GeForce 5800. Card reviews claim that it has some serious heat, noise, and dust issues. It's informally called the "dust buster" because of noise its fan makes.
If you absolutely only want open source drivers on your system, the Radeon 9200 is the best card you can buy.
If you have a Linux/Windows dual boot, consider either the Radeon 9800 or the GeForce 5900. The Radeon will be slightly stronger on Windows. The GeForce will be stronger on Linux.
If you have a Linux only system, the GeForce 5900 is your best bet. As of today, the 256MB version comes in at a whopping $350, however, the 128MB version is more reasonable.
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