[geeks] PCI-E video cards

[Lionel Peterson]

>From: Joshua Boyd <jdboyd at jdboyd.net>
>Date: 2008/03/07 Fri PM 10:52:08 CST
>To: The Geeks List <geeks at sunhelp.org>
>Subject: Re: [geeks] PCI-E video cards

>On Mar 7, 2008, at 10:36 PM, Lionel Peterson wrote:
>
>>> From: Joshua Boyd <jdboyd at jdboyd.net>
>>> Date: 2008/03/07 Fri AM 11:33:50 CST
>>> To: The Geeks List <geeks at sunhelp.org>
>>> Subject: Re: [geeks] PCI-E video cards
>>
>>
>> <snip>
>>
>>> Certain older Radeons should be flawless.  Like the X300s or X800s.
>>> Then you won't need blob drivers.  I haven't actually tried those  
>>> with
>>> Solaris ever though.
>>
>> Just a note - the Radeon x300 is a pretty low-level card, esp. by  
>> todays
>> "Vista-capable" standards...
>
>The X300 isn't Aero compatible?  Sheesh.
>
>For the linux desktop gui wizardry a 64meg radeon 7k is plenty  
>adequate.  A 32 meg unit works fine at 1024x768, but then apparently  
>runs out of memory to handle higher correctly.

Vista has upped the "base" requirements for systems, but I never said the x300 wasn't Aero-compatible, I said it was a low-end card. x300 Radeons are about $20-30 and are several years old by now. They make great server consoles (for MBs that have no on-board video and a PCI-E slot) and are good for WinXP desktops, but I would want to use a video card with Vista that supports DX10, and they seem to start around $100.

I can't speak to the x300 with Solaris, it is probably well supported, but that is just an assumption.

Lionel