Cheap Nvidia Video Card for Unity?

[pt123]

From Hardy to Lucid my onboard Nvidia chip (geforce 7025) has been fine for Ubuntu.

But with Unity and Natty, it has become useless.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=10685040

I am hoping for a recommendation of a low end nvidia graphics card someone is using with Unity without problems, my monitor is a 1920x1080.

I don't play games, so if the card doesn't use too much power (fanless, or quiet fan) would be ideal.

[gsmanners]

I have a 9400 GT, and that works with Unity after you install the nvidia drivers.

[pt123]

are the drivers from ubuntu or the nvidia site?
also how many monitors are you using?

thanks

[gsmanners]

I just use Jockey (Hardware Drivers) to pull the driver from the repo. I'm using one monitor.

[pt123]

does the video card produce a lot of heat?
and it has vdpau?

[pt123]

the nvidia site is recommending these video cards, seems like they have gone to a new numbering system

[gsmanners]

Well, I've been playing video games for the past couple hours and right now it's sitting at 55 degrees C. So, not too bad. Yeah, I used VDPAU for some videos. Works fine.

[Exodist]

Well I cant say my card was a cheap solution, but it was under $200 when I bought it last year. So I expect it to be cheaper now. I have a MSI Cyclone 460GTX. It can overclock like a bat-out-of-hell and still not run hot. Idle right now is on average of 30c-33c with hours of WoW play only getting me to low 50s, never above 55c ever.

I know its not super cheap, but if you have heat issues this baby runs cool. It has huge variable speed heat-sink/fan combo that is just awesome. Plus it runs rock stable. Its never gave me a hick up in Kubuntu's KDE or Ubuntu's Unity.

[pt123]

bump, anyone else ?

[3Miro]

I have both GTX260 and GTS250, both run Unity great. I haven't personally tested other cards.

[jespdj]

If you want a video card just to have some Unity / Compiz desktop effects, then any current-generation NVIDIA card will do just fine.

I have a 8600 GTS (old!) in my desktop PC and it can run the effects without any problems.

Looking at current NVIDIA cards, I guess a cheap GeForce 220 GT or 240 GT will do just fine.

See products here: http://www.nvidia.com/object/geforce_family.html

GTX are the high-end, high-performance, high-power gaming cards. GTS and GT are the lower-power, cheaper, lower-end cards.

[LowSky]

here ya go.. hope this is cheap enough for ya

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007709+4025+600030348&QksAutoSuggestion=&ShowDeactivatedMark=False&Configurator=&IsNodeId=1&Subcategory=48&description=&Ntk=&CFG=&SpeTabStoreType=&srchInDesc=

just be sure you know if you use PCIe x16 or AGP... the two might look similar but are not compatible.

[cariboo]

I've got a nVidia GT218 (Geforce 210), that performs quite well, it does 1080p without breaking a sweat, I've seen prices from just under $30.00 to $80.00. I don't know if that qualifies as cheap to you, but it was for me. :)