ATI graphics card: Should I, or shouldn't I?

**heartburnkid** · February 19th, 2009

We've all heard the common wisdom... ATI's drivers are crap, stick with nVidia under Linux, yadda yadda. But I'm going to be in the market for a budget card very soon, and with the low prices on the 4650 and the 4830, both of which blow away anything GeForce in their price bracket, I'm severely tempted to give ATI a shot.

So, give me a primer here. If I ignore the common wisdom and go ATI, what kind of trouble will I be in for, and what could I do to mitigate it?

**whoop** · February 19th, 2009

If you also use windows, maybe.... You can then use your ati card for games in windows.

**heartburnkid** · February 19th, 2009

Originally Posted by whoop

If you also use windows, maybe.... You can then use your ati card for games in windows.

How about if I do most of my gaming via Crossover?

**insineratehymn** · February 19th, 2009

Originally Posted by heartburnkid

How about if I do most of my gaming via Crossover?

Then I hope you are a literal ninja at xorg.conf, xrand, and crossover graphics configuration. =)

**Insane1** · February 19th, 2009

Yeah, while ATI has gotten much better in Linux since Ubuntu 7.10...if you're going to try using windows games in Wine or Crossover, I'll suggest NVidia. I've gotten nothing but trouble without tweaking that's further over my head (for windows games anyways. Linux games work nicely) with my ATI X1400.

**Squid Spectre** · February 19th, 2009

FGLRX can be a wily thing, I used to use an ATI card to game with CXOffice. It worked, that much is sure, but configuration took a bit of patience and research. If you consider yourself a reasonibly well versed Ubuntu user go for it, its do-able.

Now, I use an nVidia 9800 GTX+ and game just fine with crossover, nothing intense though TF2 really. For my two cents I prefer nVidia, but thats just me.