Recommended video card for basic usage

qsecofr

qsecofr

Hi,

FBSD7.2. Xorg7.4.

New LCD monitor is capable of 1920x1080 native resolution. On-board video card appears capable of up to 1280x1024. On-board card is ATI 3D Rage XL 8MB. Xorg.0.log reports ATI Mach64 adapter detected.

As Xorg.0.log rolls through modes, some of the higher modes result in either (hsync out of range) or (insufficient memory for mode) or (bad mode clock/interlace/doublescan).

Am I wrong to think the on-board card isnt capable to drive the monitors native resolution?

I saw on the handbook a section about adding LCD monitors to the mix. Author recommended searching Xorg.0.log for "Supported additional Video Mode", and hand-type a mode line in xorg.conf. Makes sense - if video card can do it too.

If I can get by somehow with existing on-board video chip then I will. But I dont necessarily want try running X at a resolution that just wont work either.

If I need a new card, then either PCI or PCI-ex. I don't need dual monitors, HDTV in/out, no gaming, .. just relatively basic with the occasional youtube video.. Searching for recommendations turned up posts asking for more advanced or cutting-edge features than I need.

But based on what I read, sounds like ATI cards have very good support.

Some manufacturers appear to use ATI chips, like Diamond for example. Not a concern? Are there any to avoid (like components that only work with Windows)?

Based on my modest requirements, I'd expect price range under $75..

Advice much appreciated. Thanks
 
16 bit depth

I commented out all subsections except that which specifies 16 bit depth. Xorg.o.log says:
Code: 
(WW) MACH64(0): Shrinking virtual size estimate from 1920x1080 to 1400x1050
(--) MACH64(0): Virtual size is 1400x1050 (pitch 1408)
(**) MACH64(0): *Default mode "1400x1050": 122.0 MHz, 64.9 kHz, 60.0 Hz
(II) MACH64(0): Modeline "1400x1050"x60.0  122.00  1400 1488 1640 1880  1050 105
2 1064 1082 +hsync +vsync (64.9 kHz)

And it doesn't look too bad, color-wise. I've got 1/6 of my screen empty. But the display image isn't stretched out like a bad telecast of a TV movie in 4:3 to 16:9. I'll leave the xorg.conf like this until I get more power to drive the monitor's full capability. Thanks for the tip.

LateNite,
Generous offer. Let me see what I can find first. I'm in US, but I do believe there are others who may be more in need than me. I've got the means so long as I can find a suitable end. I'll start looking for Radeon x850 as first on the list.

Thanks
 
I recommend "geforce 210" for a desktop if you have a PCI-ex16 slot. Modern GPU, 0.5gb of DDR2 mem, opengl 3.1 support (just incase you want to do some fancy 3D rendering in the future), official NVidia drivers for FreeBSD. Only for $50 on amazon.
 
Pretty much any ATi Radeon 8000 or newer (R300 or newer) will do that resolution. Any of the PCIe Radeons will do that as well. If you get one that has an R300, R400, or R500 chipset, you can get decent 3D acceleration out of the open-source "radeon" driver that ships with X.org (excellent 2D as well).

You'll need to search the ATi website or google to figure out what model names map to which chipset, although reading the radeon man page, or getting an Xorg.0.log file from someone using the radeon driver will list out a lot of model numbers.
 
Diamond ATI Radeon 9250

This card based on specs seemed sufficient. But after installing it, turning the power supply on, things went wrong. Namely computer didnt power up. Dont know at this point if its really dead or not, but am starting to plan for the worst.

Ive got 2 SATA hot-swap disks in gmirror raid-1 mirror. (plus recent backup of essential files on DVD) Id like to think I could just plug my disks into any other hot-swap SATA system, turn it on, and I wouldnt even hardly realize the physical box differed.. At this point im sure hoping its just that easy.. just in case..
 
Power supply did fail

I managed to neglect that my 7-year old APC UPS is not powerful enough to drive my system. The added video card seemingly was the final straw. UPS overloaded instantly after turning it on, and in the same instant I could tell the server had definite problems. One person's unscientific sniff-test led him to think I burnt the video card too. I dunno about that. Everything inside the case looks clean. And I didnt smell anything unusual when the overload happened.

But I did take old power supply to a parts store where they tested it, confirmed it dead, and sold me a replacement. They believe the old power supply, FSP, had voltage, current protection circuitry to isolate problems away from mother board or other components.

I'm encouraged. But will wait to test the theory until the new UPS arrives in the next couple days. 800w & 1000VA should be enough to drive 600w power supply.

I hate learning lessons the hard way :-/
 
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