# Video cards and lack of info



## alset (Dec 2, 2010)

Greetings,

I can't seem to find very concrete information on compatible (with xorg) video cards. As far as I can tell, the best method for attaining this data is to choose a card that sounds useful and then search the web at length (the official supported hardware list omitted video cards). This often turns up discussions for troubleshooting issues with said cards, but not a definitive "compatible" or "not compatible." The best info I've found was in regards to a card that was functional but lacked acceleration, thus poor performance. This was great to find, but that's only one successful search out of many attempts. 

I was hoping someone could recommend a solid low profile card, with good driver support, that I can fit in a slim case tower (Acer AX3950, if it matters).

Thanks to anyone who can offer their thoughts.


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## wblock@ (Dec 2, 2010)

In this computer right now: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102829

Low profile but includes a full-profile bracket, which is what I'm using.  Works fine.


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## alset (Dec 2, 2010)

Thanks wblock! This was one of the cards I had my eye on, but couldn't find concrete confirmation of compatibility. Anyone else have other recommendations?


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## Zare (Dec 2, 2010)

nVidia chips have official support. 
Radeons up to HD4350 with acceleration, AFAIK.
Intels up to GMA500 with acceleration, AFAIK.

Matrox with 2D acceleration only. Keep in mind that you won't have "poor" performance until you run something 3D.


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## adamk (Dec 2, 2010)

Zare said:
			
		

> nVidia chips have official support.
> Radeons up to HD4350 with acceleration, AFAIK.



Up to and including the HD4950 are supported with 2D and 3D acceleration.

EDIT:  Having said that, though the radeon driver works well for me, it does have a few issues on FreeBSD, at least for me.  Primarily, I sometimes get distortion in qt4 applications.



> Intels up to GMA500 with acceleration, AFAIK.




The GMA500 has *no* acceleration on FreeBSD because it's not really an Intel GPU.  I'm not sure of the latest actual intel GPU that's supported, but I'd be wary of buying one at the moment.

Adam


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## alset (Dec 3, 2010)

Thanks for the info, guys. I purchased the Sapphire HD 4650 and my system is running like a champ. 

Out of curiosity, what does it mean to an end user that nVidia chips have "official support?" Does a card that doesn't have official support run the risk of losing functionality across upgrades?


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## adamk (Dec 3, 2010)

The nvidia drivers developed by nvidia for FreeBSD.  While the open source 'radeon' driver (x11-drivers/xf86-video-ati) is at least partially funded by AMD (and they even have their own developers working on it), they are primary concerned with Linux support, not FreeBSD.  

Could xf86-video-ati stop working after a future upgrade?  Sure, it is possible.  It's also possible that nvidia could drop support for any of their GPUs on FreeBSD at any future point.

Adam


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