Hi!
We work with interactive graphics in openGL and Performer.
We work with SGI and now we want to work with linux,
we need to buy the equipment but we don't know which
graphics card to use, we can afford a $1000 USA for the video card.
Do you have any suggestion about it?...
It kind of depends. If you don't need overlay planes I'd reccomend going with a GeForce 2. You can use XFree86 and Nvidia's free drivers, as opposed to more expensive, proprietary, incompatible solutions like XiG's 3D Accelerated X. You will need to know how to install XFree86 4.0.x, plus recompile your kernel to support the card, but it shouldn't be too hard. I'm not sure exactly what price range their video options fall into but it's worth noting that HP's Visualize series of workstations now support Linux with a custom HP X server and hardware acceleration. Plus there's SGI's new line of low-cost Linux/Intel/Nvidia based workstations - you might want to get one of these if you want something that works "out of the box."
Even better than the real thing.