[KLUG Members] Re: Slow graphics -- nVidia card + nVidia drivers

[Bryan J. Smith]

Alan DeJong wrote:
> Whenever i try to play games on my linux box, it takes forever!!

What video card?  What games?

> Now, i know my machine is fast enough.  I am running stock redhat 7.2.
> A few examples:  When i try and play tux racer i am not even able to
> play the game.  The graphics move about a frame every 2 or 3 seconds.

You aren't running OpenGL hardware accelerated!  You need either:

   A)  To use DRI (Direct Rendering Infrastructure) *OR*
   B)  GLX (OpenGL on X-Windows)

Some cards and games support DRI.  I don't know what to tell on where to
get support.

There is an open-source project call Utah-GLX that brings OpenGL to a
number of cards, although OpenGL performance is not nearly as good as on
Windows.  Long story short, it is combination of vendors not supporting
Linux like they do Windows (I mean, Microsoft _sux_ at writing anything
to do with OpenGL ;-), and the fact that GLX is a bit more "complicated"
than standard OpenGL (it even supports _remote_ 3D display to other
systems!).

*BUT*, latter works with all the games I have thrown at it because I use
nVidia cards + nVidia's driver.  nVidia's driver uses the same codebase
as Windows (although it's "more conservative" in its settings).  The
latest nVidia Linux 1.0-2xxx series uses the same codebase as the nVidia
Detonator 4 drivers for Windows.  Again, this is nVidia's own driver,
not the nVidia driver that comes with X-Windows (which doesn't have 3D
acceleration at all).

32MB nVidia GeForce2 MX cards, which is great for 16-bit color 3D, are
now as low as $50.  64MB nVidia GeForce2 Ti200 cards, which is better
for 32-bit color 3D, are now under $100.  If you want the ultimate
OpenGL performance, go nVidia GeForce3, the 64MB GeForce3 Ti200 starts
at $150.

Matrox also has excellent drivers for Linux, with a GUI-based setup,
although the OpenGL performance isn't quite as good (although the ~$125
G550 isn't a slouch).

ATI is planning on releasing native drivers for its Radeon 7500/8500
series soon.  If and when they do, it might be the highest performing 3D
card with a dual-head solution (as nVidia has yet to release dual-head
support for its GeForce3).

> And i just downloaded a new game called foobillards, and it does the
> same thing.  I am guessing its a problem w/ my X Server, but what can
> i do about it?  -Alan

It's not X-Windows, but OpenGL.  Tux Racer is an OpenGL game.  I assume
foobillards is as well.  You need hardware OpenGL acceleration.

-- TheBS

-- 
Bryan J. Smith, Engineer          mailto:b.j.smith@ieee.org
AbsoluteValue Systems, Inc.       http://www.linux-wlan.org
SmithConcepts, Inc.            http://www.SmithConcepts.com