On Mon, 22 Jul 2002, Richard Rauch wrote:

> Heh.  Most are, I think.  The question is the relative weight that <X>
> enjoys versus <Y>.  I'm a grad student with very low income at the moment,
> so a $400 or $500 video card just on which to watch a handful of movies is
> a huge waste.  A $40 or $60 card that I'll "have" to replace in time with
> a "real" card for DRI support is also a waste.  A $100 or $150 card when
> DRI is available is almost defensible, though, so I'm waiting...the longer
> I wait, the more leverage I get for that $100 or so.

  The Matrox G400 is a nice AGP card with DRI support (on Linux) and is
available for just under $40 at a number of online surplus outlets.  It is
very nearly the same card as the later Matrox offerings (except the new
Parhelia which is very good but expensive) and actually gets slightly
better performance.  It is a slower and less featureful card than just
about any other modern 3d card, so it might not meet your requirements on
that front.  But the price is right and the image quality is as good as
any consumer graphics cards available, so it might be woth a look.

Matthew Orgass
darkstar@pgh.net