VIA Launches A Graphics Card. Will It Work With Linux?

[Fatfool]

Exactly my point. Via makes some interesting hardware that I would love to test (hey, I'm using Nouveau on my 9500) but:
a. the hardware is difficult to find (meant for OEMs)
b. if you do find it, it's way overpriced
c. their drivers are a big turnoff. No healthy OSS development, either.

Those which weren't meant for OEMs wouldn't be overpriced....if they had actually released them on time.

I mean seriously? A VB8003 board for 240 USD?!

you could get like a minix 780G + Phenom II X4 905e/910e with that kinda budget.

Either that or you could go for an atom at a way lower price.

Oh, and I don't have any idea why an OEM would want this eH1 card. haven't they themselves been integrating all this onto their Mini-ITX boards? They seemed to do a competent (albeit overpriced) job with their VB8003 board (Chrome 9 HC + discrete Chrome 435 ULP on board.

Most Mini-ITX boards don't even have a PCI-E slot nor are most of the cases designed for them. (all those small cases a net top would use usually don't have a slot/are too low for any cards. POS machines like uh can do without advanced graphics?)

[BlackStar]

How does power consumption of VIA cards compare to NVIDIA/ATI?

better, since they don't work.

Fixed that. :P

How does a doorstop compare?

(Yeah, just trolling)

Okay, I queried about it and found that it is actually for ODM/OEM markets. I won't be testing this because of the price.

Exactly my point. Via makes some interesting hardware that I would love to test (hey, I'm using Nouveau on my 9500) but:
a. the hardware is difficult to find (meant for OEMs)
b. if you do find it, it's way overpriced
c. their drivers are a big turnoff. No healthy OSS development, either.

[Fatfool]

Okay, I queried about it and found that it is actually for ODM/OEM markets. I won't be testing this because of the price.

[Fatfool]

Update:

OKAY, I AM NOT GETTING IT AT THIS PRICE!

http://www.e-itx.com/via-eh1.html

What is VIA smoking? 180 USD for a card? Their cards have never been this expensive.

[Fatfool]

How does power consumption of VIA cards compare to NVIDIA/ATI?

comparable.

Performance wise, usually better at low resolutions settings than ATi or Nvidia but performance takes a huge dive when cranking up the res and settings.

[Fatfool]

If you are happy with one driver update per 12 months, don't upgrade your distro ever and don't care about 3d graphics then why not? Please blog/post about your experience, it will help others make more informed decisions - one way or another.

Their linux drivers are updated like once every 6 months. yeah I know.. not much difference from a year but oh well.

And from the single linux review the Chrome 440GTX was run on, 3D is supported. The comparison was done against vista on the Unigine engine.


The site was 'Chromezone' and it's long gone down.

Come on, I'm volunteering to jump into a pile of what is possibly turd here. Some moral support please?

[Fatfool]

You are really spending your money on such an uncertain thing? Well, that is either courageous or ... well, foolish

Indeed the manual says something about
"Operating System: Windows XP, Windows 7 and Linux" but reading shows limited Windows support (Vista not mentioned, not that Vista would be good for anything...), no BluRay for XP and Linux was mentioned with x86 (so probably no amd64 support).
99,9 % of the pages show Windows procedures and problems. "Linux" is just mentioned 2 times without any further hint. X.org or something not at all.
It's your money, I wish you luck but I am sure that you'll find out the many issues soon.

And I wouldn't spend any money on VIA anymore. Just had years of pain with their stuff (well, mainly the GPU side, the rest was so-so) I'll stay away from them.

I just find those cards terribly amusing.

and No, they do have some sort of x86 64 bit drivers:

http://www.s3graphics.com/en/drivers/download_drivers_detail.aspx?productId=19&edId=13

As I said before, I have had experience with them on windows vista (the chrome 400 series) and they have performed...as they should have - low performance, low power cards.

I tried obscure 3D games like 'The Path' and better knowned ones like 'Titan's Quest', 'L4D2'.

They performed as it should have, with choppy frame rates but no artifacting. Actually, L4D2 was playable, with a driver which was clearly published before the game was launched. (then again, source has been around for some time)

The limited number of reviews on these S3 cards (400 and 500 series) collaborate with this. They complain about performance, but note that there are no incompatibilities when they tested it.

Besides, there isn't much harm. It's not as I'm using one of their chipsets for my Ubuntu box. At worse, if the drivers don't work, I'll just take the card out and go back to the integrated drivers.


And the cards are cheap. I mean, hell they cost lesser than say Swiftech's MCP355 pump, just a component of amusement for WC enthusiasts.

[yesterday]

Who in their right mind would ever buy a discrete video card from VIA (or S3 for that matter) regardless of their OS choice? I understand some people might get stuck with an onboard chipset and have to make do, but to actually consciously decide to buy a discrete card from VIA just boggles my mind. I don't even care what the price may be when there are discrete cards from both AMD and nVidia in the $50 range that are at least as powerful and certainly far better supported.

How does power consumption of VIA cards compare to NVIDIA/ATI?

[BlackStar]

Probably not bad as a server but the PCI latency issues make it fairly craptacular for anything that uses audio.

It served as an XMBC/Nvidia media box before that. Can't say I had any issues with audio latency - not as good as the SoundStorm (3ms ASIO latency!) but not awful either.

[locovaca]

I gave the MVP chips as an example of one of their most horrid chipsets ever made (way back around 2000-2001)

Their most recent chipsets are a mixed bag though

Right, that's my point. MVP were actually 90's, Socket 7 stuff. No point in crucifying companies for decisions they made 6 generations ago. At least, on the chipset front.