Linux za Sve forum

For Linux, hands down AMD/ATI.
Nvidia drivers are essentially closed-source binary blobs designed for Windows, with an open source wrapper layer code interfacing between the binary blob and the Linux kernel. This means that the nVidia drivers cannot be included in the actual kernel distribution due to licensing requirements of the kernel's code.
The graphics stack on Linux is undergoing a sea change right now. Open source drivers (which are available for AMD/ATI GPUs and Intel GPUs) can be included in the kernel, and they are. They implement features within the kernel itself, such as Kernel Mode Setting (KMS) and Graphics Execution Manager (GEM). These features cannot be implemented by nVidia closed source drivers, because they are features of the Linux kernel itself. In turn KMS and GEM are requirements of the emerging new Linux graphics stack, based on Wayland.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayland_%2 ... rotocol%29
"In recent years, GNU/Linux desktop graphics has moved from having "a pile of rendering interfaces... all talking to the X server, which is at the center of the universe" towards putting the Linux kernel "in the middle", with "window systems like X and Wayland ... off in the corner". This will be "a much-simplified graphics system offering more flexibility and better performance".
The closed source graphics drivers from nvidia cannot currently implement Wayland, and nvidia have no plans to work around this issue.
Just to be clear ... the same issue applies to the closed source AMD/ATI driver called fglrx.
The only choice going forward will be Wayland. The only way to run Wayland is to use open source drivers.
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/a ... ystem.html
Therefore, the only choice going forward will probably be open source Gallium3D drivers for graphics cards. These are currently available and fairly well advanced for most Intel and AMD/ATI GPUs. There is an option also for nvidia GPUs called the nouveau driver, but because it must be reverse engineered it is a fair way behind the capabilities of the Intel and AMD/ATI open source Gallium3D drivers, from Intel and Xorg respectively.
AMD/ATI GPUs are a lot better performance than Intel GPUs.
Gallium3D drivers performance, generally, has reached about 80% of the performance of the closed-source binary blob drivers for the same GPUs. This gap is closing rapidly.
Anyway, there is much to be gained and very little to be lost, even right now, in using the open source Gallium3D drivers for Intel and AMD/ATI GPUs. Closed source drivers will eventually become deprecated, and unable to be used any longer.
If you want cheap and ongoing viability, go with an Intel GPU.
If you want performance and ongoing viability, go with an AMD/ATI GPU.
In either case, use the open source Gallium3D driver, which will be the driver shipped by default with your Linux distribution, and which will work out of the box without you having to touch anything at all.