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----- Original Message ---- |
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From: Paul Hartman <paul.hartman+gentoo@×××××.com> |
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To: gentoo-amd64@l.g.o |
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Sent: Thursday, August 27, 2009 12:27:31 PM |
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Subject: Re: [gentoo-amd64] Re: Heads-up: KDEers: Particularly kde3-ers, |
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> On Thu, Aug 27, 2009 at 11:03 AM, Sebastian |
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> Beßler<sebastian@××××××××××××.de> wrote: |
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> > Paul Hartman schrieb: |
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> >> On Thu, Aug 27, 2009 at 8:16 AM, BRM<bm_witness@×××××.com> wrote: |
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> >>> Not everyone upgrades their video card every 6 months. |
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> >>> Most probably get a video card upgrade only when they buy a new computer; |
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> >>> and most don't buy a new computer every other year either, probably more like 4 years or so. |
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> >> |
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> >> You can get a GeForce 9600 for around USD$50, which comes near the |
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> >> performance of the famously-expensive 8800 series (or at least near |
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> >> enough for costing hundreds of dollars less), and has an H.264 decoder |
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> >> so you can use vdpau with mplayer or mythtv to allow even very slow |
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> >> computers to play high-res video smoothly. |
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> > Many mainboards from that time only have AGP not PCI-E and to get a 9600 |
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> > with AGP is not easy or even possible, so that is not really a option. |
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> I have an old Pentium 4 box which has a PCI-E video card. If a |
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> computer is so old it doesn't even have PCI-E, its owner probably |
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> wouldn't expect 3D desktop effects to work so well in the first place. |
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> My old PII 266MHz had an AGP 3dfx card. I wonder if KDE4 desktop |
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> effects would run well on that? :) |
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Remember, however, pretty much 100% of laptops cannot have their video card replaced. |
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My laptop has a built-in ATI card. Great little card, and I do hope that it will be able to do some effects - though, as you said, I won't expect the world of it. |
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That said, about the only thing that really prevents a lot of this is drivers. I'll update everything else, but I have to be able to use the hardware. That is one reason _why_ I use Linux to start with. |
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Most cards - even the ATI R250 in my laptop - can probably handle a lot of effects without much problem; but it's the access to the drivers that is the problem. |
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I can't run the ATI binary drivers b/c ATI no longer supports the chipset; yet I _cannot_ upgrade the card - it's impossible - without throwing out an otherwise perfectly good laptop. |
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Fortunately the F/OSS drivers are good enough, and I hope they continue to stay around. |
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> > And even if it is possible why trash a card that most of the time works |
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> > and needs only a fraction of the power of a modern card? |
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> If your primary concern is power usage, you're probably not going to |
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> use the desktop effects anyway. To improve performance, which is what |
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> I thought we were talking about, you could get a better-performing |
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> card. |
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Graphically, I notice not difference between the ATI R250 in my laptop and the nVidia 9600 in my AMD64 Desktop. |
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Granted, the 9600 could probably beat the pants off the R250 by the raw numbers; but the general uses of the system make no difference between them. |
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Then again, perhaps KDE4 will show something - but I doubt it. |
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Of course, I wouldn't expect the nVidia RIVA128 in my PII 233 do be able to much if any effects at all. |
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Ben |