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Having trouble installing a piece of hardware? Want to know if that peripheral is compatible with Linux?
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You're asking for too much, if you want it with ease ATI cards can well do that too, with the same effort.
ATI cards don't suck, it's only a grief that the drivers are a bit difficult to install, but usually don't take long to get working. I've found out the same problems do exist with nVidia's and all other cards, not just ATI. It's easy to find an nVidia card that does not work in Linux, just as easy as finding an ATI one or of any other manufacturers.
I suggest you buy a relatively new, but not the very newest, since then you'll probably have the greatest chances of having a card that already has a driver support for Linux plus some real power compared to nowaday's computers and demands.
ATI cards can't do that. Their drivers don't support the needed GLX extension (unless you're using the free driver, but its performance sucks). And by the way you're staying on a safer side by buying NVidia. NVidia recent drivers support every card from GeforceFX to Geforce 8800, and the performance is also way better. ATI drivers do work, but actually not much more than that, while NVidia drivers work very well.
I would recommend you to buy some of the Geforce 7x00 series, but also with 6x00 series you should be fine. Which one you should buy depends on your wallet and on your exact demands: the cards with a lower second digit in their model, i.e. 7300 or 6200 are low-end cards, do not score good performance in modern games, but should be fine for older games and OpenGL toys like Beryl. If you plan to play more GFX intensive games like Quake 4 then I'd advise you to buy a 7600 or even a 7800. Also there're tons of reviews on the net, just google a bit and you'll find them.
let me just chime in that I would highly recommend BFG tech's 7600GT. you can find it on newegg for a decent price and occasionally they have nice mail-in rebates on it. Good performance, modern card, and it's not as bad on the wallet as the bleeding edge cards are.
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