Video Card Recommendations?

tubatodd · 02-02-2007, 08:47 AM

I have a Sony Vaio desktop machine that I purchased new in 2001. It has a P4 1.8Ghz CPU and 512Mb of RAM. It runs fine with Ubuntu Edgy, however I feel that the video could be better. The system came with a Nvidia TNT card with 32MB of Ram. The performance of that card has been just "ok". This machine is NOT a gaming machine, but I would like to purchase a decent, well supported (support "out of the box" by Ubuntu) video card to improve video performance. I would like to be able to run Compiz eventually and use some of the neat OpenGL visual effects. What card would y'all suggest?

Thanks!!!!!!!

Redeye2 · 02-02-2007, 11:20 AM

Stick with Nvidia all the way.

kilgoretrout · 02-02-2007, 11:50 AM

You probably need an AGP card. You will have to determine the AGP speed(2X,4X or 4X,8X). I'm guessing probably 4X,8X but you will have to determine that for sure. IIRC 4X,8X AGP cards will not fit in a 2X,4X AGP slot and vice versa as they have different voltage requirements.

The other limitation to keep in mind is the power requirements of the new card; your psu may not be able to handle the additional load, so be sure to check that carefully. As far as graphics chipsets, you want to get an nvidia based card and use the nvidia driver for full 3d support. Getting a lower end GeForce FX card will probably be more that enough and will do what you want; something like a FX5200 or FX5500. You can pick those up for $40 to $60. Here's a couple to give you an idea:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814145143

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130255

Note the recommended 250 watt PSU for the FX5500.

Cogar · 02-02-2007, 01:00 PM

Even if you are not gaming, if you are running 3D effects, you should get a reasonably good card. The NVIDIA 6600GT is reasonably priced these days in both AGP and PCIe formats, has good Linux support, good 3D, and is fast. Incidentally, since NVIDIA and ATI drivers are proprietary, most distributions necessitate installing video drivers downloaded from the manufacturer to get optimal performance. Regardless of the particular model, I believe you will have fewer problems with an NVIDIA-based card.

tubatodd · 02-02-2007, 01:05 PM

I believe that my machine has AGP 2X or 4X. I will check when I get home.

Micro420 · 02-02-2007, 10:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Redeye2

Stick with Nvidia all the way.

I second that suggestion!

fragos · 02-02-2007, 10:09 PM

My EVGA GeForce FX5200 is 8X and 4X compatible and I'm pleased with the improved performance I got over the on board chip set.

gilead · 02-02-2007, 10:11 PM

I have a workstation running Slackware 11.0 with the nVidia 6600GT AGP card in it that I used to play Quake 4 on (when my son let me near it). The performance for cost was good and installing the driver was no problem with the 2.6 kernel.

tubatodd · 02-03-2007, 11:50 AM

According to the specifications that I found in the owners manual, the video card that the machine came with is a Nvidia TNT2 in a 4X AGP slot. Now, this confuses me. How do I find out if it is 2x,4x or 4x,8x?? Thanks!

kilgoretrout · 02-03-2007, 12:37 PM

It's kind of complicated but here's some info on AGP slots:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerated_Graphics_Port

http://www.playtool.com/pages/agpcompat/agp.html

From the looks of things, you should be OK with the two cards I gave you as they have the dual slots and should fit into almost all AGP slots, certainly any slot that operates at 4X.

gilead · 02-03-2007, 01:02 PM

You can see which mode the kernel selects at boot in /var/log/messages. I get the following:

Code:

grep 'AGP.*mode' /var/log/messages
Feb  4 04:39:58 fender kernel: agpgart: Putting AGP V3 device at 0000:00:00.0 into 8x mode
Feb  4 04:39:58 fender kernel: agpgart: Putting AGP V3 device at 0000:01:00.0 into 8x mode

tubatodd · 02-03-2007, 05:55 PM

I believe I will end up going with the FX5200 ($36.99)that Kilgoretrout linked up above. Now the next thing I need to do is get my Linksys WMP11 v2.7 working or buy a new PCI wifi card that works out of the box. Thanks for everyone's help!