Re: powerstorm 4d40t support.
On Tuesday 23 September 2003 08:21 pm, Maciej Matysiak wrote:
> > Yup, my recommendation would be to get some old Matrox-card
> > to replace it, eg. Millenium or G200; good support in xfree
> > and srm.
>
> several people advised that. does that mean that i can put in
> any pci card supported in kernel? or, do i have to flash the
> card's rom first (like they do with ati/nvidia cards to work
> with macintosh)? getting old matrox is more than tempting, if
> that's so simple.
Well, not just ANY card...
Macs can't handle any sort of x86 option-ROM code on the vidcard.
Obviously, the answer is to flash the card's ROM.
Alphas actually have enough x86 emulation in their bootstrap
firmware to handle many x86 option ROMs. Not just any option
ROM though--stuff like nVidia PCI cards will often just plain
not work. Additionally, some x86-oriented vidcards will work in
one Alpha system but not another.
Matrox PCI cards can usually be trusted to work with Alpha's x86
emulation. You get good 2D with these cards, but no XVideo and
no 3D accel (Matrox Linux drivers are agpgart only, no pcigart).
3Dfx PCI cards (the 2D/3D cards, not the 3D standalone cards)
also usually work. I know you get 2D and 3D accel; don't know
about XVideo.
nVidia PCI cards usually do NOT work.
ATI cards up to and including the Radeon 7500 usually work. They
will give you decent 2D, somewhat-decent 3D accel, and good
XVideo support. Beyond the 7500, an ATI card may or may not
work--and XFree86 support for later cards (like the Radeon 9200)
is incomplete and often rather unstable.
S3 cards usually work OK, but XFree86 support for them is spotty,
even in plain-jane 2D. Don't even think about 3D--the original
S3 VirGE was nicknamed "3D decelerator" for a reason. Stay away
from dem pieces of junk!
--
Kelledin
"If a server crashes in a server farm and no one pings it, does
it still cost four figures to fix?"
Reply to: