Compare graphic cards
The question of which is the ideal graphic card cannot be easily answered.Although you find tests in every computer magazine, you can never be sure that you found the right card that fits your requirements, especially if these tests were done on M$Win.
This site is currently off-line, We wrote for the reason.
G. Saraber's answer (gsaraber@rarcoa.com):
Hi,
Thank you for your interest, I just spoke with the owner of the site (my boss), [and] he says he took the site offline because he didn't have the time and resources available to maintain the site, on top of which he feels the site isnt getting the recognicion it deserves, like linuxgames.com would post old and incorrect data and it would be all over slashdot.org and other news sites.
Our opinion: This project is important and it is worth keeping it alive. We hope someone will be found to manage this project in the future. If you were interested in helping, you could contact G. Saraber via gsaraber@rarcoa.com .
What good is it if a graphics card was the test winner on M$ O$ but is not well supported by XFree86?
Nothing can make us more angry than a graphics card that is not used to its potential.
With Linux systems, we recommend that you should be well-informed if drivers for XFree86 are available.
New cards are often not supported and can only be used with a lower color depth -- if you can use them at all.
Some companies, like 3Dfx or nVidia, produce drivers but they are the lone knights.
A big problem was that no central station with information about graphic cards working with Linux existed. But this changed! The Linux XFree86 Performance and Benchmarking site tests the newest graphic cards. A benchmark test produces comparable results about the speed of graphic cards with XFree86.
The author knows how difficult it is to produce a fair and complete benchmark, warning us not to take the obtained values (so called Xmark93 and BardMark) too seriously. Differences can appear for one graphics card on different computers. You should never believe that a card has better performance just because it has a slightly higher benchmark; this is not the aim of this site. It wants to show which cards are slowed down by bad drivers and which are not. Also, the benchmark tests only the 2D functions, a benchmark for 3D cards is still in development.
Bench it yourself
Of course the author is not able to test every card, but needs the help of the Linux community.
If you own a new card, you can benchmark your card very easily and mail the result
to the author who will analyze it. You do not even need to download the program
because it is included in every normal distribution with XFree86; it is the program x11perf.
Before you start executing it, you should check to see if you installed all necessary fonts. Very often the benchmark does not work because
a few 2-byte fonts are missing in the distribution.
Have a look in the directory usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc and search
for the fonts jiskan24.pcf.gz, jiskan16.pcf.gz and k14.pcf.gz .
If they are not there, download them from http://www.xfree86.org.
Before you start the benchmark, stop every program running in the background that is not needed. (Of course you should not test it while a
window manager is running.)
The best way to test would be if the program was called in the ~/.xinitrc file.
First save your .xinitrc and then use the following file instead:
#!/bin/bash # # .xinitrc # x11perf -v1.3 -rop GXcopy GXxor -all > x11-perf-datafile |
After you stopped all programs and edited the .xinitrc file, you can log in again and start the Xserver as usually (either you use startx or the graphical login (gdm,xdm,kdm) appears.
The Xserver starts and a white window appears in the top left half where you can follow the test of the graphic card.
One run can take up to a few hours depending on your card. While the test runs, you have enough time to find the manual for the graphics card because you will need it later.
After the benchmark test finishes, it closes the Xserver and you are back on the prompt or the graphical login.
Now you have the file x11-perf-datafile in your home directory. This file has to be e-mailed to Wayde Milas (wmilas@rarcoa.com) together with additional information.
You should add the following:
Family: (which family does your card belong to? e.g. 3Dfx)
Maker: (who made the card: e.g. 3Dfx)
Name: (name or the card: e.g. Voodoo3 3000)
Card Ram (Meg): (Ram Memory of the card: e.g. 16)
Ram Type: (e.g. SDRAM)
Bus Interface: (Bus Typ: AGP or PCI)
Core MHz: (from the manual or using
">>xvidtune" at Pixel Clock (MHz))
Tested MHz: 166.00
Server Version: XFree86 3.3.3.1 V3 (you get this executing
">> X -showconfig")
Resolution: 1600x1200 (you get this starting ">> xvditune"
at HDisplay and VDisplay)
Monitor Frequency Hz (vertical refresh): 70.00 (you get this via
">> xvditune"
at Vertical Sync(Hz))
Color Depth (Bits): 16 (you get this out of the file ~/.X.err at
(**) XXX: Using 16 bpp. Color weight: 565
^^^^^^^^ there it is.)
Kernel Version: 2.2.10
MTRR: (read the Performance FAQ to answer this question)
CPU: Pentium III 450MHz
System Ram (Meg): 256
Mboard Chipset: (name of the chipset on the motherboard: z.B. Ali)
Bus Mhz: 0
System Load Before Test:(you get this from the 3rd line of ">> top")
If you are unsure if you answered everything correctly, please add the file "~/.X.err" because some questions can be answered there.After your mail is on its way, you just wait until your card and its test results are analyzed and added to the site.
And do not forget to copy your old ".xinitrc" back where it belongs!
Links
Homepage XFree86: http://www.xfree86.org
Homepage Linux XFree86 Performance and Benchmarking: http://www.openprojects.rarcoa.com/~theb
ard/
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