It seems the more information I find the further away from picking a card I am. I am picking components for an HTPC. This HTPC will be used for HD video (digital cable, analog cable, and possibly Blueray movies), as a PVR, some 3D design using Blender, and for some games (spore, World of Warcraft, nothing bleeding edge). If all works out as planned it will run MythTV on Ubuntu with Windows XP as another boot option for gaming. My intent is to keep this computer quiet so I'm willing to spend a little more on quality components.
The components I have already chosen are an Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale and Sonata Designer 500. It will have 4 GB of decent RAM and a good high speed harddrive.
The state of the video card industry is rather confusing at the moment. In the past NVidia has had far superior linux drivers but ATI is supposedly coming out with some new open source drivers and/or really kickass proprietary drivers. ATI's 4000 series card, from what I've heard, just blow away NVidia's latest cards but the 4000 series cards are only gaming cards. I've seen a few places mention that ATI also has higher picture quality but lower frame rates as well as lower power/performance ratio.
What would you suggest and why?
Any clarity on the situation is greatly appreciated.
The components I have already chosen are an Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale and Sonata Designer 500. It will have 4 GB of decent RAM and a good high speed harddrive.
The state of the video card industry is rather confusing at the moment. In the past NVidia has had far superior linux drivers but ATI is supposedly coming out with some new open source drivers and/or really kickass proprietary drivers. ATI's 4000 series card, from what I've heard, just blow away NVidia's latest cards but the 4000 series cards are only gaming cards. I've seen a few places mention that ATI also has higher picture quality but lower frame rates as well as lower power/performance ratio.
What would you suggest and why?
Any clarity on the situation is greatly appreciated.