Graphics Cards part 2

A little bit of info to impart here with respect to using the proprietary nVidia drivers. So, first I went to livna and downloaded the nVidia kernel modules that match my kernel. Then things were running great - even a little better than before, but something seemed wrong. The people in the irc room were unhelpful when I tried to ask them if nVidia was running. When I tried to run BZFlag, it no longer ran! I kept getting GLX missing errors! Turns out that it wasn’t running! I had to go to system-config-display (in Red Hat Fedora) and tell it to use the nVidia card as my graphics card. Then I opened up a terminal and typed init 3 and went to another VT for init 5 to restart the X server. This time I saw the nVidia logo when I got to the login screen. Success!

Finally, it was time to play BZFlag with the nVidia drivers loaded (as they were the impetus for my getting the gfx card in the first place!) To recap - before the graphics card, my computer couldn’t handle it. The cheap-o on board graphics that eMachines had installed didn’t do 3D rendering. I tried to play BZFlag and my computer lagged so badly that no only could my tank not more for all practical purposes, but I was kicked out of the game for excessive lag. Then I put in the graphics card, but no nVidia drivers. Now I could play the game! There was still a bit of lag-induced stutter, but it was playable if I had to. Then I went ahead and installed the nVidia drivers and BAM! It plays beautifully smooth!!!

It was a good purchase and definitely worth the $30! I can’t imagine how much better things would be with a graphics card with 512 MB RAM, but I currently don’t use my Linux computer for too much gaming, so this should be good enough.

Oh yeah, I can move windows around without any lag at all and switch desktops with the greatest of ease. Bring on the AIGLX and other similar things! Enable real transparency! w00t w00t!

• Nvidia