Video card selection

[cr22rc]

Help I'm lost in video land confusion! Hi! Of all things video/graphics cards driver and support has always confused me. I'm finally upgrading my display and I need a new card. The card has to be AGP x8 interface for the system and the display requires a DVI-D dual link. I'm not looking for an end all graphics card and I do zero gaming. However, I'm hungry for screen real estate. Looking at least for 2560 x 1600. While I can find video cards that match these descriptions I'm worried about linux (mostly fedora 7.0 x86_64) support. For example Radeion x1950 Pro http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2855870&CatId=2234

But will it run on Fedora 7 x86_64 with 2560 x 1600 ? Cheaper to suit my needs? I'm also not interested in paying an arm and a leg cause I plan later this year to move up to PCI express 16x system and like I said not into gaming. How can I find out if this or any other card will work? Or at least has a chance at working? Any one having a system like this with some recommendations or things to avoid would be GREATLY appreciated. Also is there better support under ATI or Nvida in general with regard to Linux ? Thanks in advance appreciate all the help I can get. I mostly can deal with other hardware but video stuff with the endless number for cards etc just makes my head hurt.

[Gnafu the Great]

I've always heard NVIDIA support is much better than ATI support in Linux. I know I haven't had any problems with my NVIDIA chip. With either one, you'll need to add the Livna repository if you want the proprietary (from the manufacturer) drivers, though the built-in, open source drivers should be fine if you're not going to be doing 3D (though you might want to try Beryl if you get a shiny new graphics card ;)). As for supported resolutions, I'm pretty sure Linux will support anything the card/monitor supports.

[rerushg]

Gnafu is right. General consensus is Nvidia is more supportive. I run F7/64 with an 7900GS on 1080i TV no sweat with Beryl and some gaming. On the lower end my son runs a 7300GS on an x86 distro with Beryl no problem. Drivers used to be problematic for Fedora but Firewing has done great work in smoothing it out for F7.
Your desired resolution should be no problem at all.
Not against ATI; just don't know much about that side of the fence.

[cr22rc]

Thanks all. Really appreciate you replying. Maybe I'll stick to the Nivdia line up.

[andycon]

just a side note, you don't HAVE to use the livna repos for your nvidia driver. i think the problem i had with that was i'd update my kernel, and the package for the new kernel wouldn't show up on the repos until sometime later. i now install the driver manually by running the script i downloaded from nvidia.com whenever i upgrade my kernel.