Re: [gentoo-user] PCI video cards, hardware accel, upported by open-source drivers?

[Pandu Poluan <pandu@poluan.info>]

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On Apr 11, 2012 1:15 PM, "Walter Dnes" <waltdnes@waltdnes.org> wrote:
>
> On Tue, Apr 10, 2012 at 06:45:55PM +0100, Stroller wrote
>
> > I'm sceptical over the benefits of upgrading a 4 year old PC (short
> > of ripping most all the guts out and starting again). I know the
> > industry has currently settled on PCIe, but haven't bus speeds
> > increased in the last 4 years? Are all the latest cards compatible
> > with your Dell? If not, then you'll probably end up buying an older
> > model, and then that will be sub-optimal when you want to upgrade
> > your motherboard in a year's time.
>
>  I've posted a snapshot of the Dell's internals on my ISP's personal
> webspace at http://clients.teksavvy.com/~walterdnes/misc/dell2.jpg  Is
> the long black slot PCIe?  What's the short black slot?
>

The long black slot looks like PCIe. To be precise, PCIe x16. The short
black slot is PCIe x1, (originally) meant for low-bandwidth devices like a
fax modem.

> > I'm sorry if this reply is unhelpful, but you give a lot of information,
> > and perhaps that means you might be open to considering alternative
> > solutions to the core problem.
>
>  If it's PCIe, so be it.  Actually, a post that prevents me wasting
> money is helpful <G>.  Would PCIe be significantly better on the same
> CPU+GPU, or is it hype?
>

For games with huge 3D textures, absolutely. For video playback, not so
much.

But the main point would be that the newest graphics cards are all released
in PCIe version only, and future mobos will all support PCIe, so it's a
future-safe investment.

Rgds,

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