I recently bought SuSE Linux 9 Pro and I'm about to install it.

I've got $400 to upgrade my video card.

I do play Quake 3 Arena, Unreal Tournament, UT2003, and Return to Castle Wolfenstein.

My current video card is a BFG card, based on the nvidia Geforce 4600 card.

I've heard of some problems between SuSE 9 and nvidia.

If I were to get a Radeon 9800, would my games still work? Would they run as fast? (nvidia does at least write their own drivers, but how does the Radeon compare in Linux?)

Thanks!

I don't know about how good the radeon cards are supported (especially the high end ones) but I have 2 nVidia AGP cards, one GeForce 2 440 MX with 32MB and another GeForce FX 5200 TDR128 with 128DDR which never give any problems. Games run very nicely. (All those you have mentioned + a few others like America's Army etc.) I just compile the nVidia drivers into deb packages and install them. That way i can enable SBA and fast-write options which are disabled by default. With $400 i think you can get a very high-end AGP card. The newer nvidia-based cards like GeForce FX and higher are really good. But you dont get all the great games in linux yet. Maybe thru wine, etc ppl run games but not native installs. Also some games use directaxe9 features. Dunno how those games will perform in linux.
I personally think though that spending 400 $ on an AGP card would be a waste of money as all games i play run properly with a $90 card! Maybe that's because i am not a gamer and also don't have that kind of cash lying around. I would probably get another DDR module or a better mobo! Just my 2 cents.

It's easier to setup a nVidia based card under Linux. I had GF 4200 and it was no problem. Suse
even offers an automated download/install of the drivers (it works). However, if you want a 9800
it's possible, but the installation is a pain in the a$$ if you never did it before. There are numerous threads on LQ regarding the installation on different mobos under Suse 9.0. I have my sapphire 9800 pro running and play UT and UT-2003 and it's no prob (but it did run with the 4200 either).
If I were you, i would stay with the 4600 a little longer because it's still a fast card. Lean back and wait for the prices to come down, especially considering, that one can't take advantage of Directx 9(or whatever version) under linux

Wolfgang