I realize that this may not be the most appropriate forum for this question, however, I believe it is relevant to everyone reading it and I hope that my question is not out of line.

I am looking to choose a graphics card (for a PCI-E slot that is "16X, 8X link". My primary requirement is the most responsive 2D graphics in a dual-head configuration (or even single-head if I buy a large monitor - the monitor has not been chosen yet). Output to TV, 3D rendering ability, and other fancy features, are nice-to-haves, not requirements.

Basically, I am looking to choose to best graphics card for using GIMP on a many-CPU lots-of-RAM system. In addition to GIMP I would be using whatever image viewing tool has the best user interface to allow me to select images to work on with GIMP. Other activities on the system would be so much less intensive as to be irrelevant.

Full and complete Linux support is necessary. Binary-only drivers are a serious negative that I can live with, although quite unhappily. I can not be in a position where my RAID controller requires kernel X and my video card requires kernel Y and my sound card requires kernel Z. This makes for very choppy video, to say the least.

I lead towards NVidia because their stuff does work, but it is a pain to maintain and it is against the spirit of freedom that I am so close to embracing.

I appreciate any help.