Date: Fri, 10 Apr 2009 21:26:55 +0100 From: Dieter <freebsd@sopwith.solgatos.com> To: freebsd-multimedia@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Help picking a video card and other related gear Message-ID: <200904110426.EAA14171@sopwith.solgatos.com> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Fri, 10 Apr 2009 01:16:22 CDT." <1239344182.1922.40.camel@balrog.2hip.net>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
> > I'm currently running 1280x1024 on 21" and I need more desktop. > > So I put together some minimum video things: > >=20 > > Requirements... > > 1) Freebsd, amd64 [for zfs and the future of things], xorg > > 2) DVI-I or DVI-D dual-link card for those 30" 2560x1600 displays That's for 60 Hz. If you think you might want a 120 Hz display instead of 60 Hz, dual link is only good for 1920x1200. > > 3) Well supported, _open_source_, in the tree, video card drivers: > > o I don't want to rely on the card vendor to release binary blobs. > > o I don't want to end up with a useless video card when > > xorg9/freebsd10 come around. > > So, for video you want an ATI/AMD card. r500 and below will get you all > the features today. r600+ will get you EXA and Xv acceleration today, > with 3d rumored to be coming soon. Do they actually have Xv running *correctly* yet? I've been reading about various bugs for ages. If you want XvMC the only option currently seems to be to find something supported by the openchrome driver. If you find something let us know. > > 3) A second connector off the same card for feeding a smaller > > secondary monitor at the same time. > > 4) Some sort of power save mode... LCD off, card idle, etc. I think the ATI FLOSS gang might be working on power save mode stuff about now? > > I'm still shopping for motherboard and chipset. I don't think I'll > > find 2560x1600 dvi dual link on an integrated chipset? Thinking > > maybe AMD 790GX and AMD SB750 if FreeBSD likes it. If these have the UVD or UVD2, they aren't documented yet, and might never be. :-( Video decoding isn't a priority in ATI FLOSS land. :-( > > I might as well go HTPC and stick an HDTV OTA ATSC / QAM tuner in > > there. And I'll eventually need to capture NTSC audio/video from > > dying analog sources somehow. VOIP/webcam, mplayer, dvd upscaling, > > etc. That's all 2D and largely CPU based afaik. Recent GPUs can offload most of the video decode duties, but this hasn't been documented and FLOSS code hasn't been implemented yet. (Unless you can find something in the Chrome family you like.) For tuners there is the HDHomerun. Ethernet so it doesn't need a device driver or a slot. But it is digital only, no analog. Jason's cx88 driver (in ports) supports several cx88 based cards, both digital and analog. http://corona.homeunix.net/cx88wiki > > CPU will likely be... > > amd: phenom x3 8450e, athlon x2 5050e or 5600+ If it were me I'd look at Phenom II at least x2, maybe x3 or x4 depending on pricing. Decoding HD video in real time without GPU assist needs a lot of CPU. The best source of info on the state of ATI FLOSS I've found is http://www.phoronix.com/ The gang there is mostly penguins, but I'm assuming that anything that goes into x.org should work on BSD? If you're into completely documented hardware, the OGD1 price is now down to $750, but the software isn't done yet, and it is intended as a development card, not as a production graphics card.
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?200904110426.EAA14171>