[LAU] Video Drivers and Audio, ZaReason, and MacMini

[Clemens Ladisch]

Brian Bergstrom wrote:
> 1. I am researching to build a new system here and need to make the
> video decision of NVidia or ATI.  My goal is to be able to run 3d games
> and do my audio work on the same linux installation if possible.

AFAIK the proprietary nVidia video driver still works a bit better than
the AMD one.

> I know in the past I heard bad things about the binary proprietary
> drivers and realtime audio(freezing, xruns, etc).  Is this still the
> case?

Both nvidia's and fglrx's interrupt handlers are evil.  However, you
should be able to minimize their effects on the rest of the system by
using a multi-core CPU (not that you could avoid this nowadays) and
message-signaled interrupts (the nvidia driver needs the module option
"NVreg_EnableMSI=1" to enable them).  In the past, there were problems
with MSI on some chipsets, but nowadays it works.

> recommendations?

A nVidia card, and a modern chipset (i.e., not nVidia).

> composting window managers
  ^^^^^^^^^^

It seems I haven't kept up with the latest advances in desktop
technology.  How does this work?  ;-)


Regards,
Clemens