[vtkusers] nvidia GeForce/GeForce2 cards with RedHat 6.2 and vtk

[Dave Reed]

I've seen nvidia cards mentioned on this list before when people ask
about graphics cards, but I've never seen anyone say they had one
working with Linux and vtk. 

I'm thinking about getting a 3D video card and it appears that
nvidia's GeForce and GeForce2 are clearly the top performers.
According to the XFree86.org web site, the GeForce card works with
XFree86 3.3.6.  

>From what I've read, it appears that you need to download GL libraries
from nvidia's web site to take advantage of the card (not
surprisingly).  

Can anyone confirm or deny that vtk works well (i.e., compiles and
takes advantage of the hardware acceleration) with these cards,
nvidia's GL library and RedHat 6.2/XFree86 3.3.6?

I understand that performance will be improved with XFree86 4.0 but I
will probably wait for a distribution to come with 4.0.  If I'd get
some benefit from the hardware with XFree86 3.3.6, I'd like to buy the
card now, but if I'm still stuck with software rendering until driver
issues get worked out, I'll wait (and let the prices drop too).

If they do work, any recommendations on a specific manufacturer/card?

Feel free to e-mail personally since this is slightly off topic for
VTK and I can summarize if there's interest.

Thanks,
Dave
dreed at capital.edu