Hello everyone!
Didnt really know what to name this post, hope you wont rant about it too much .

I recently had a discussion with a friend about graphic cards. I wanted to upgrade since the one im using now sucks (ill probably have to wait anyway or at least upgrade everything, just a gpu wont do it)
He suggested some of the new ati radeon (hes not a linux user) since they are cheaper than the nvidia and supposed to be better (no, we are not starting a thread about which cards the best). He claimed that buying a nvidia (not the top of the line though; ti4200 or fx5200) wouldnt be a good deal since it wouldnt support directx9. I claimed that for me that didnt really matter since im using linux and wont probably be playing games or using software that takes advantage of this. He replied quikly harassing my bad knowledge of things: even though i wouldnt use the software bit of directx9 i would eventually use some of the features that was on the card itself, naming all the fantastic things that this would involve (are you all following me... to me it doesnt make much sense, but as I said, gpu are not my strong side, dont have time to constantly read about the latest gpu stuff! ) Now the question (were getting there...) if Im not using wine (is there any support for directx9 in wine, I think that the directx9 in itself is pretty buggy still) to play games or m$ software (wine, winx) will there ever be any implementation of these flashy functions to linux... will opengl use it?

Now if im just writing this showing of my bad knoledge please flame me in a nice way, else your comments ?

Cheers, Klod

Your friend is overall right. They classify the cards by their DirectX version since windows IS the market leader. But in the end, programs from all OS's can/will take advantage of these progresses. So although they're called DirectX 9 cards, their features will be supported in linux games (eventually) also. Although your friend is wrong, the GeForce FX 5200 IS a DirectX 9 part. But don't get it, it's garbage, can't even outperform the Radeon 9000. Although a GeForce 4 TI4200 is "ONLY" DirectX 8.1, it supports everything out there right now, and will probably continue to support all linux stuff far longer than windows. So no reason to avoid it. And ATI's getting better with their drivers, so no reason to avoid the Radeons either. A friend just had me build him a new computer using a 9500 PRO (Windows only though), and it kicks ass. From what I've read, installing the Radeon drivers in linux is no worse than installing the Nvidia drivers...some have great success with one, some with the other, some with neither. I've never really bothered, since I keep windows around to play games on.
No, there is no DirectX 9 support in wine right now. Mainly because there is NO programs yet that take advantage of it, other than a few benchmarks.
OpenGL will, more than likely, take advantage of the hardware improvements in DX9 generation cards, but I'm just taking a guess here. Since they right windows games to use OpenGL also, I'd say they almost have to, in order to keep people using it.

Thanks for the reply (and the enlightment), as I said ill probably have to wait with upgrading, no use just getting a new card, the box is too old! Short on cash but, hey, ill build a new eventually ;D


Cheers, Klod