Video Card Advice?

[boballen55]

Well I've been looking around the forums here at what peoples opinions are about video cards and it seems pretty variable. So I'm making my own post to see what kind of response I get to my problems. My plan was to try and get a little bit of an upgrade on what I have without spending a whole lot. I have a X1300 Pro ATI card now. My primary problem is that I can't get it to work with Compiz or a couple other similar desktop effect program thingers (can't recall what I tried, twas a while ago). Tried the proprietary driver which created a number of problems and still didn't make Compiz work so I went back to the generic one (still can't restart and suspend since that...). The other thing I want is a little better performance for games in windows.

So any suggestions on a PCI card less than $200? Let me know if more information on my system might be good to know. Thanks!

[Mgiacchetti]

im using an Nvidia Geforce 6150 LE (on board but you should be able to find equivalent pci) and it works out of the box... drivers are installed proprietary with no problems, compiZ works fine, etc..

[boballen55]

im using an Nvidia Geforce 6150 LE (on board but you should be able to find equivalent pci) and it works out of the box... drivers are installed proprietary with no problems, compiZ works fine, etc..

hmmm... yea it seems that the older nvidia 6000 series cards have decent support on Ubuntu but I don't think those are an improvement over what I have (the one I found still at Best Buy looked equivalent to what I have). The newer 7000 and 8000's that probably are an upgrade seem to have some inconsistencies in Ubuntu (judging from forum posts). I'd appreciate anyone telling me if that observation is true or not. Thanks for the post.

[Mecharuva]

Hey guy I'm using an old Nvidia chipset, PNY Verto GeForce 7600GS AGPx8, and it works perfectly.
I honestly hope you don't seriously mean just a simple PCI slot video card, and that you really mean a PCI-Express card.
If you play relatively new games (Like Command & Conquer 3, or Unreal Tournament 3) on Windows, I reccomend an 8000 series Nvidia card, preferably 8600 or better.
If you play a good amount of games on Windows and they make use of physics get an 8800 series card, as they have built in physics processors from what I've heard.
Also, just a note: In my experience, ATI cards work horribly with Linux.
Plus Nvidia cards do better special effects on games. These are only my opinions of course.

[boballen55]

Yea it is a PCI-express, I guess I didn't realize there was actually a difference. I thought that meant something like "new and improved" on cereal boxes. And yea the ati card I have now just barely works with linux. So you pretty much confirm my thought that ati is not a good way to go. So I've got a suggestion of a Nvidia 8600+ series. Can anyone confirm that some Nvidia 8600 or above works well in Ubuntu. I've read some posts with people having as much trouble as I am with my ati. Thanks for your suggestion.

[boballen55]

So I just looked on the Best Buy web site and found a GeForce 8600 GT OC card. About as much as I wanna spend so just wondering if anyone else got this card working well in ubuntu. Here's a link.


http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8523467&productCategoryId=abcat0507002&type=product&tab=2&id=1186007075007#productdetail

Any thoughts on it?

Also now that I know there is some difference between PCI and PCI express is there a real difference between PCI express and PCI express x16??? Not sure which mine is or if it matters... Thanks!

[chelovik]

I've installed Ubuntu onto three computers in the last month, one with a second hand GEForce6800, a new GEForce9600, and a Raedon6800. All worked perfectly, and with zero setup time. If you try to set up card using terminal-line commands, you will probably run into problems, which happened with my very first install. However, a reload of Ubuntu, and then using the Restricted Drivers Manager (under System|Administration) proved to work with no worries and almost no intervention. I am running AWN, the Mac-look and-feel under Compiz, with the 3D cube working perfectly.

Personally, if you are running Ubuntu, you will not be running high-tech games, and therefore your graphics requirements are going to be minimum. A 128Mb should be enough, and you will find hundreds of these secondhand.

[Szat]

The difference between PCIe and PCIex16 is that PCIex16 is 16 times faster than PCIe. If you can get a Nvidia Geforce 8800GT 512mb. I have that on my desktop and it's the best card I have ever had. It's really cheap on Newegg now.

[boballen55]

Personally, if you are running Ubuntu, you will not be running high-tech games, and therefore your graphics requirements are going to be minimum. A 128Mb should be enough, and you will find hundreds of these secondhand.

I have a dual boot and do run some higher end games. Thanks for your comment.

[boballen55]

The difference between PCIe and PCIex16 is that PCIex16 is 16 times faster than PCIe. If you can get a Nvidia Geforce 8800GT 512mb. I have that on my desktop and it's the best card I have ever had. It's really cheap on Newegg now.

So if my card is an PCIe now will I be able to put in a PCIe x16 in the same slot? Is there any difference in the slot required for PCI, PCIe or PCIe x16? Thanks!