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Message-ID: <4ad99e05041025093856cd16ba@mail.gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 25 Oct 2004 18:38:48 +0200
From: Lars Roland <lroland@gmail.com>
Reply-To: Lars Roland <lroland@gmail.com>
To: Timothy Miller <miller@techsource.com>
Subject: Re: HARDWARE: Open-Source-Friendly Graphics Cards -- Viable?
Cc: Linux Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>
In-Reply-To: <4176E08B.2050706@techsource.com>
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Hi, great idea

> (1) Would the sales volumes of this product be enough to make it worth
> producing (ie. profitable)?

I think, at my work we spend a great deal of money on Linux/OS
compatible products and I know many others that do so, also if you can
get the chip working in a low power environment, people like me doing
embedded devices will be really interested.

> (2) How much would you be willing to pay for it?
This depends on many things. I just paid 120$ for a Matrox g550, just
for the sole fact that it had open source drivers, it has dual dvi and
it has enough 3D power to use the latest spiffy stuff in xorg 6.8.0 -
for gaming I just use a secondary graphic card or my ps2.

> (3) How do you feel about the choice of neglecting 3D performance as a
> priority?  How important is 3D performance?  
As I said, it should have enough 3D features to be used together with
xorg both now and in the future - so you should look hard at what
Longhorn /Mac OS X have done and decide what features to implement. I
do not care if it can run doom3 or not, I have yet to come across a
graphic card that can run the latest games and have decent Linux
support (this is especially true when you are running dual head).

> (4) How much extra would you be willing to pay for excellent 3D performance?
200-300$ but then it should also run Doom3/Halflife2 at a playable speed. 

> (5) What's most important to you, performance, price, or stability?
Dual head, there is just no good option here any more, the old Matrox
cards (G400, G450 and G550) are just not that good anymore (if you run
dual dvi, the maximum res is 1024*1280, that is not good enough on a
19 LCD screen). I know a lot of computer professionals, that would
love to get there hands on a graphic card with dual/quad output, that
have great Linux support and can run at high resolutions.

For my own part I can tell you, that a dual head dvi card is high on
my wish list (if it can run 1200*1600 on each head), if you can make
one with Linux support, then I would be happy to pay 200-300$ for it,
even if it did not have the best 3D support (just enough power for
future xorg/enlightenment effect and I am happy).
-
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