Looking for a good ATI gfx card

[snow93]

I'm currently looking for an modern ATI graphics card to replace my aging Nvidia Geforce 6600GT.
Could anyone suggest one that has reliable, 100% free software drivers, and costs less than £100 (~$160)?

[L4Linux]

Whatever you choose, STAY AWAY from HD-3650!!!
It has broken drivers on both windows and linux. In windows, it requires a hotfix driver (not official release) to display anything 3d and in Ubuntu 9.04 at least, it is unstable with compiz. Maybe it works better with the latest kernels, when Ubuntu 9.10 is released, I'll install it and post again.

[oz]

Looking for a good ATI gfx card

Just curious... have you had problems with nVidia cards, or are you just looking to try something different?

I only ask because it seems from my experience on various Linux forums that ATI users generally have more problems with Linux than do the nVidia users. That said, it should be noted that I've been using nVidia with Linux for the last 9 years, so can't speak from personal experience about the ATI cards.

Either way, do let us know what you go with and how it works out for you.

[snow93]

Well, my Geforce 6600GT has been brilliantly reliable for several years (apart from once when it green polygons started flickering on the screen, and I had to unscrew the fan and clean out a ton of dust), but I'm aware that it's no longer capable of playing the absolutely latest games at the highest framerate.

As I bought the 6600GT 4 years ago, while I was still a WinXP (l)user, the thought of proprietary drivers didn't cross my mind; but now I feel like getting a new gfx card I'm certainly aiming for one with free drivers.

I've also noticed that ATI users seem to have more problems, but I was hoping that by now there must be *somewhere* a reasonsbly high-end ATI card with capable drivers

[Tarthen]

ATI are nothing but trouble in my experience. Hardware glitches, driver crashes, general fail... they run hot, too.

Do yourself a favour. Get a 9800GT or similar from your favorite hardware store - the overclocked ones are going for an absolute steal - and ignore the proprietary drivers. They're just too good. The ATI ones are bad and the free one doesn't even have 3D support.