Recommend a good graphics card that has good linux support
 

I'm looking for a decent graphics card around 100-200 USD. Around this price range its easy to find a good card for Windows support for pretty good gaming, but since I run linux like 85-90% of the time, I need one with decent linux support. I remember that nvidia had pretty good linux drivers. Is it pretty much at the point that any card older than 3-6 months will be supported by Nvidia? Also, can someone suggest a decent card? I'm new at hardware and custom builds.
All responses are appreciated.
Thanks
RzITex

Essentially any modern NVIDIA card will work fine. ATI's support has also gotten much better than it used to be, but personally I would still go with NVIDIA. Their Linux driver/software is more or less on par with their Windows version in terms of features and performance.

Depends on your personal attitude. If you want to use open source drivers I would definitely go for AMD (there is no ATI anymore). If it is no problem for you to use proprietary drivers I would go for NVidia.
I personally would recommend a Geforce GTX 560.

I'm using a MSI hawk gtx460. With the Nvidia drivers it has been very stable and fast. It was also quite cheap. I can run most modern Windows games on quite high settings in Wine (Rift, SC2 etc).

I think anything in the Nvidia gtx series is going to be good..

Thanks. Alright, pretty much helps out on the decision.
The two decently priced ones i'm looking at are:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130625
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814500194
and if I decide to splurge:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121446
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127565

If only I didn't have to wait for like 3 more paychecks to get the parts. haha

Do you game much?

If you do, the GTX460 1GB is faster everywhere than a GTX 550 Ti-

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4221/n...short-at-150/1

Not that much more than a GTX550Ti as well, the 'proper' GTX460 1GB models are all $159+. The 'SE' models I jkoingly call 'slow edition' because they run slower clocks that the 'normal' 1GB models.

If you dont mind sodding around with rebates, this would be a much, much better deal than the GTX560Ti-

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...280&CatId=3669

Thats a 'SSC' version of the GTX460 1GB, its a fair bit faster than standard clocked 460s (faster core and memory clocks).

If you dont game quite a bit with graphically complex new games, then the GTX models are a waste of money and will just make your computer run hotter and noiser than a cheaper card. GT2XX, GT4XX or GT5XX are good for desktop and 'light' gaming use from nVidia.

cascade9: Thanks. I game a little and I'm trying to get into gaming
more. I'm probably going to be the VP of my gaming club this year, if
not the following years I'm there. As for games, I don't really play
that many new games, but some of the games I've found to stress many
peoples graphics cards. Like smoke in COD4 tends to stress them out and
that is a very popular game at my school.
I'll look at the selection you were talking about and start focussing on
that. Do those cards that I put for like 130-150USD look decent?
Thanks
RzITex

COD4 is pretty gentle on video cards, if you compare it to some of the other FPS games around.

Depending on what resloution you want to play COD4in, even the'desktop' nVidia cards (and ATI/AMD for that matter) should work OK. That would only really be true if you played at 1024x768, or maybe 1280x1024. The more common widescreen resolutions (like 1650x1050, 1920x1080, 1920x1200) around now would make even the best of the 'desktop' cards unplayable.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/A..._GT_440/9.html

I'd focus more on price than any particular card, or series of cards.

The pricing changes fast in the video card world, and the tech is always evolving. The GTX460s were $200-250 not that long ago. Now the GTX560Ti is in that price range, but given a few months to a year or so maximum, the GTX560Ti will be down to $140-160 as well, and there will be some new card in the $200-250 bracket (probably GTX660).

They look OK. I've never been that much of a fan of the 'budget' end of nVidia gaming cards. ;)

cascade9: Thanks for that link. didn't think it effected that much. Even though my laptop I played on had shitting graphics (to say the least), I probably shouldn't have been playing them at 1600x900 or 1920x1080 like I was at school (yea, imagine cod4 on an integrated intel laptop graphics card at 1920x1080. FUN haha). Again, I don't get my last paycheck until August 31 so I won't be able to tell how much money I'll be able to spend on the whole machine until then. But if I have enough money, I'm going for the http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127565 card. It's pretty good and the cooling is supposed to be great (kinda goes along with my box as the case has like 6 fans, its the Antec unbreakable gaming case). But yea, I just need to keep looking and learning about graphics cards to be able to make the decision, ya know.

Thanks again for the help
RzITex

Resolution makes a huge difference. Its pure maths-

1024x768 = 786,432 pixels
1280x1024 = 1,310,720 pixels
1440x900 = 1,296,000 pixels
1600x900 = 1,440,000 pixels
1920x1080 = 2,073,600 pixels

You can see that running at 1600x900 means the video card has place almost twice as many pixels as 1024x768, and 190x1080 is almost 3 times as many pixels.

The 'normal' GTX560Tis have cooling that works well. The only reason to get a GTX560Ti with more cooling power is if you are planning on overclocking the card a fairly large amount.

Thanks for the help. I think I've decided to go with this one: [URL]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130625[URL]. Its going to get me what I need and not too overly expensive. And the way I built my pc allows for good upgrading. so next year when I get back to work (and making a buck more :)), I will be able to upgrade the card the what is 250 now (better graphics, but more importantly, better cooling).
I'm not too too worried about cooling. my case will be moving a crap ton of air through there and I might even get the case from the four stock fans upto the 6 it includes which means even more airflow.

'Better cooling' isnt going to do anything compared to 'decent/adequate cooling', unless you want to do big overclocks.

Having a GPU that runs at 40C doesnt make any real difference to lifespan compared to 45C.

LOL, you've got more case fans than I have fans in my entire system.

Update: I take back what I said, the case supports upto 8 fans :)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...s-_-11-129-100