EMC and video cards

[MrWild]

I've heard a seperate video card is prefered for EMC. As I'm making a hardware list for my upgrade, I'd like to know what cards are EASILY compatible with the Ubuntu/EMC set up.

I have a Dell Optiplex 260 with a 2.1GHZ processor, 40GB hD, 1GB RAM, and onboard video at the moment for this project.

For sure items are a Mesa 5i20, 7i33T, and 7i37T. I'll also be using a VFD for speed control.

What video cards will slide in with the fewest problems? I don't know where to look for drivers, and don't want to buy a card that will have me stalled due to needing to learn special moves to make it work. I figure there will be enough brain sweat doing everything else.

[MrWild]

Found the answer and will be going with a Matrox G400 or G450 video vcard.

[fritzgutten]

I know nothing about emc, but historically, linux gets along better with nvidia than ATI. that should be changing in the near future. when in doubt, go with an older video card, one thats been around for a year or more.
just some rules of thumb that i go by. let us know how it works out.
Fred

[MrWild]

The wiki says to AVOID anything Nvidia. Plays havoc with realtime kernel. Suggestions are older ATI and Motrox G400 or G450

[samco]

and if all else fails - try the vesa driver for the video card

sam

[fritzgutten]

you must be talking about the EMC wiki?
my apologies on that, and i have learned something new
thanks, Fred

[cbcnc]

fritzgutten,

Hardware requirements:
http://wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/emc...e_Requirements

EmcKnowledgeBase
http://wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/emcinfo.pl

It's not really obvious from www.linuxcnc.org.

Chris

PS - I second that on the NVidea card. I have an older Elsa ErasureX (Nvidea chip) and the only way I could get it to run dependably in Ubuntu is with the generic set of drivers at a loss of screen resolution.

[fritzgutten]

Thanks cbcnc,
gives me a heads up if i go EMC

[fungunner2]

Hi all
I have Maschines running EMC2 with "the old" NVGforce2ti.
I probed a lot off my old Cards, with the above I have good latency Results.

Hans