7900/7950/8800 owners

[Panix]

Could anyone who owns one of the following cards:

7900 GS
7950 GT
8800 GTS either 320 or 640 MB ver.

..inform me of what the current status is regarding getting the respective card to work with 3D (Beryl/Compiz and Google Earth etc.) and overall graphics?

Can you use the card for gaming (using Wine? or?) and how difficult is it to configure your card?

I assume the 7900 GS works easiest but how does the 7950 GT and 8800 series perform? I read the 8800 GTS articles but I'm still confused where the issues lie. Is there many problems to experience when tweaking/configuring? I have seen some priced reductions with the 8800 GTS 320Mb versions but I believe a 8800 GT series is going to be introduced. Do you think these will be up to par right away since it is related to the 8800 or will it have 'growing pains?'

I learned that most 7900 GS cards are not HDCP capable. Should I care? I need two cards, one for my current computer and one for a newly built one. I'm trying to decide which cards to get. The current computer is AMD X2 4200+ and the new one will be an Intel with Quad core.

I am following the threads with discussions regarding the drivers and considering a low end card (7900 GS) and mid-range card (8800 GTS 320). I don't know if I should be concerned about HDCP. I should be able to play video with 7900 series cards for a while, right?

I've looked at 7600 GT cards but they have not reduced enough in price (v.s. performance) and are apparently noisy/heat producers for what you get.

Please advise?!? :-)

[Michael]

Using any of those cards you should have working Beryl/Compiz and Google Earth and good performance. Some of those cards have been looked at in the past @ http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...&item=Graphics

Yes, WINE works with the NVIDIA drivers.

The 7590GT should perform on par with the Windows one. Right now NVIDIA has some GeForce 8 problems. The 8800GT will not be up to par right away.

[Panix]

Using any of those cards you should have working Beryl/Compiz and Google Earth and good performance. Some of those cards have been looked at in the past @ http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...&item=Graphics

Yes, WINE works with the NVIDIA drivers.

The 7590GT should perform on par with the Windows one. Right now NVIDIA has some GeForce 8 problems. The 8800GT will not be up to par right away.

Thanks for the info, Michael!

I decided to buy a used 7950 GT. I should be receiving it soon.

I read on here of people getting 8800 GTX cards working. So, perhaps, there is a possibility of 8800 GT cards working sufficiently in the near future (as long as Nvidia's future drivers have improvements and progress?)?

I still need a card for my 2nd computer. I haven't decided on one yet. The 2nd system will multiple-boot Windows XP and Linux distros.

[Thetargos]

The 8800 GT still requires driver support, and nVidia has still to work out some problems in the cards, like XVideo (sort of accelerated video playback for video files), SLI performance, and some more performance glitches, along with some other bugs. Hopefully the next drivers address at least some of the problems, hopefully the most urgent ones (performance and XVideo)