Shopping for a new GFX Card

[Gannon8]

Hello all

I recently bought Team Fortress 2, and discovered that it was HORRIBLE on my integrated graphics card. So thus I am in need of a new one. My only requirements are that it is less than $50 USD and supports Linux, although better gfx cards would be nice. Any suggestions?

I know my computer has 2 PCI express ports, but not sure if they are 2.0 or not. I think my computer motherboard manual mentioned one of them being "slower" than the other. Lemme grab the manual really quick and I'll edit this post. Thanks in advance.

EDIT: Nope, not 2.0. One of them provides x16 bandwidth, and the other x8 (but it will be detected as x16). Neither are in use, and I also have a normal PCI Slot

[JillSwift]

I just recently got this card:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127412

Nice stuff. Cheap, fast, and free shipping from that site.

One of the nice things about an nVidia card is compiling mplayer to support VDPAU. It really makes video watching so much nicer (and vastly less CPU intensive).

[overdrank]

I have this one (http://www3.pny.com/font-color9999997300-GS-256MB-PCIefont-P1727C396.aspx) if you would like to try pm me. :)

[pwnst*r]

lol, why would you even think that a modern game like TF2 would work on an integrated card? hehe.

go with Nvidia whatever you do, those suggestions above are good.

[Gannon8]

overdrank were you going to sell it to me?

Offtopic: Last time I checked Ubuntu Forums didn't allow animated avatars. Hmm...

IDK What I was thinking. I just bought it because it looked cool. :P Anyway let me have a few more suggestions.

I almost tried to submit this by going to File->Save As. Lmao

[overdrank]

overdrank were you going to sell it to me?

Offtopic: Last time I checked Ubuntu Forums didn't allow animated avatars. Hmm...

IDK What I was thinking. I just bought it because it looked cool. :P Anyway let me have a few more suggestions.

I almost tried to submit this by going to File->Save As. Lmao

Yes, I was going to offer to sell it to you, as I do not use it anymore. Mods and Admin can have animated avatars :P

[Gannon8]

Oh lol, I'm blind.

Aww, I want an animated avatar :(

[PurposeOfReason]

Go either an 8800 to 9600. Both were the jewels of their series. The 8800 more than the 9600. Both can be found for cheap if you want to look. If you could score a 9800, that'd be peachy.

[Frak]

A good 7800 or higher can run TF2 at around 1680x1050 with a good 40fps (constant).

I recommend at least an 8800 though. Whenever Valve updates TF2, it seems to use more and more resources. To give you an example: the original TF2 used up all the resources of the Xbox360. With all the updates since (around 2 years worth), it uses roughly 3-4 times as much resources as the Xbox can provide.

Make sure you have at least 2GB of RAM, at least a 2.4GHz dual core, and at least a 7800 (or ATi x1600) to run TF2 smoothly on full settings.

Also, try starting TF2 with -dxlevel 81 to save a massive amount of resources. Dx8 mode is looking more and more like its Dx9 counterpart.