Would you recommend the product? no | Price you paid?: None indicated | Rating: 6
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Kernel (uname -r):
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2.6.16.20
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Distribution:
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Slackware
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Well, let's see... It's a nice card, particularly if you want silence as you can acquire them with entirely passive cooling systems. That means you don't have any of that noisy and annoying fan whine you get with a lot of other cards--particularly the more heavy-duty ones. It's not that expensive, although i'm pretty sure you can find them for quite a bit less than the prices listed here these days. All in all, it's a great mix of power and price and it's easy to live with too.
If, that is, you're using it in Windows.
You see, there's a problem--and no, ATI has not given any indication they will fix it, so don't expect they'll haul you out here. The problem is the really quite rubbish ATI drivers that come with it--and, since it's a modern video card, you can't get FOSS alternative drivers. About the only good thing to say about it is that each new driver release offers quite a bit of improvement.
In 2.4.xxx kernels i managed to come up with around 1,300 fps in glxgears. Note, however, that you can do better than this: by careful configuration, installation of new software, and attention to detail i managed to push it up to nearly 2,000 fps. But for real world use you're going to be looking at something closer to the 1,300 range. At least, for the present drivers.
Sure, you could just forget the performance and go for it for its other advantages--but then it stops being an economical choice and starts losing out to a host of other cards. Cards that were made five years prior to this one. About the only thing you get is the lack of cooling fan, if you get one that doesn't require it.
If this were all there was on the market it would be fine, if not as good as it could be. But you can do better.
If ATI were to get their act together then this would jump up two or three rating points and get a recommend out of me. But i wouldn't count on it. You can do much better with NVidia if you want performance, and a whole host of alternatives if you want financial efficiency or FOSS purity. (No, the drivers are not FOSS or anything even resembling it.)
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