Linux Linux graphics card suggestions for new rig

[alcy]

Its really good to see tux fans around here, in fact, just happened to see the SSD thread, took a hard look at the Alan Cox reference *happy shocked*.

Well, I have been using Intel graphics on my linux systems without any issues, with Compiz & good video playback.

However I am building a new core i7 rig, and am confused over which brand to go for, since this is my first foray into the world of graphics cards. I have a few points, hope they help in helping you suggest me a graphics card:

1. Intended use for graphics card is mainly movies/HTPC. No games.

2. After reading quite a few favorable reviews on Phoronix for both Nvidia & ATI, the real debate is regarding nature of the drivers. NVidia is closed source but better implementation due to their work on VDPAU. ATI lacks behind in the implementation part, but has open source drivers.

If someone here can provide some assurance to me as to the quality of ATI cards with regard to video playback performance, I will be more than happy to go the ATI open source way. However if it requires of me to tinker a hell lot, I'd rather go with Nvidia.

Help guys.

EDIT: Budget is 5k. Less is better.

 

[sahilm]

Both Nvidia and ATI release closed proprietary drivers. ATI proprietary drivers are rubbish and buggy. Nvidia on the other hand release excellent Linux proprietary drivers.

Open source reverse engineered drivers are again available for both Nvidia and ATI. Though the open source drivers have excellent 2D support, advanced 3D is flaky.

Thus if you have a choice, buy an Nvidia card and install the Nvidia proprietary drivers. A 9400GT would be suitable for your needs and will easily fit your budget.

 

[alcy]

Thanks for the reply, would surely consider the 9400 gt.

Regarding ATI, the folks over at Phoronix.com & other sites have been all praises for the ATI open source drivers (not reverse engineered) and that's why I was keeping them into consideration.

 

[vishalrao]

Yea, its a tricky decision. Personally IMO I would rate Intel onboard (with original Intel mobo) to be first option, if they are capable enough for HD decode, else next option is ATI, then finally nvidia as the last option. Note though that when I got my machine nearly a couple of years ago for me it was a clear choice of the 8800GT

 

[Gaurish]

If you usage is just HTPC, I would Recommend 9400GT @2.6K.Buy 9600GT @ Rs4700/-,if you want to do some light Gaming which is well within your budget. I have personally tried hardware decoding of HD movies using Nvidia's VDPAU. It works flawlessly.

PS: I have no previous experience ATI Graphics, so can't comment how well they work under Linux.

 

[alcy]

Thanks Vishal. But then core i7 doesn't has on board graphics, so yeah, am stuck in this conflict. Oh well, more reviews hunting.

@Gaurish, thanks a lot for the info. I guess I can live with few more binary blobs in my nix system.

 

[vishalrao]

Are you firm on getting a Core i7 ? Thought about a nice AMD PhenomII X4 and mobo with onboard ATI chip? (is it called 790GX platform?)

 

[sahilm]

Thanks for the reply, would surely consider the 9400 gt.

Regarding ATI, the folks over at Phoronix.com & other sites have been all praises for the ATI open source drivers (not reverse engineered) and that's why I was keeping them into consideration.

Are you talking about the radeonhd drivers. I had trouble with them too. Nvidia proprietary > all other drivers. Nvidia is the preferred way to go.

Yea, its a tricky decision. Personally IMO I would rate Intel onboard (with original Intel mobo) to be first option, if they are capable enough for HD decode, else next option is ATI, then finally nvidia as the last option. Note though that when I got my machine nearly a couple of years ago for me it was a clear choice of the 8800GT

Why ATI over Nvidia? Intel drivers are fine cause Intel is serious about pushing it's chipsets/chips to linux users and actively contributes to driver development.

ATI can't come even up with decent Windows drivers. Their drivers are an utter mess.

 

[alcy]

Are you firm on getting a Core i7 ? Thought about a nice AMD PhenomII X4 and mobo with onboard ATI chip? (is it called 790GX platform?)

What I have thought is that Core i7 & the related host of technologies it brings are fairly future proof & upgrade-friendly compared to AMD. Also, I haven't worked on an AMD processor before in my life, so to dive straight into the AMD land now would be a little...odd, I think.

Yeah the PhenomII X4 is their 790GX/Dragon platform.

 

[vishalrao]

oh, i would have thought its the other way around regarding upgradability hence futureproofing because i hear even amd's latest upcoming hexacore cpus will work with old am2+/am3 mobos according to latest anandtech articles. IMHO intel is ripping us off in mobo dept.. price of mobo is just too high.... im glad i got in with relatively good deal for q6600 and intel dp35dp mobo.

 

[unixguru]

If you are going to use Linux buy only AMD/ATI cards. Do not buy NVidia graphics cards. Though Intel drivers are open source, Intel does not release the specifications for their IGP's. Though AMD's official driver is not open source, they release full specifications for all their graphics cards. Some of the best kernel gurus are working on writing a fully open source driver. AMD graphics, upto Radeon 4xxx, already has full 2d acceleration and basic 3d acceleration. By the end of this year all cards upto Radeon 4xxx will have full 3d acceleration and most probably the performance will be better than Windows as these drivers are written by the people who know the in's and out's the Linux Kernel and X. Another advantage is that you will have Gallium 3d support and KMS support which Nvidia has publicly disclosed that they are not interested in implementing. So I highly recommended getting a Radeon 4350 which is well within your budget and use the open source driver. I can confirm that normal videos play perfectly on Ubuntu 9.10 with less than 5% CPU utilization (using the IGP Radeon HD 3200). I think HD videos are not accelerated now and compiz does not work. The current functionality of the open source is not very good but the hard work of some of the best programmers will change that for sure.

I must also mention that though Nvidia has refused to give specifications of their graphics chips, a dedicated team of developers of the Noveau project are working one an open source driver by clean-room reverse engineering. Ubuntu 10.04 will use this driver as the default for Nvidia cards.

Edit: Compiz works in Fedora 12 according to http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=fedora_r600_3d&num=1 . Chek this link for current status http://www.x.org/wiki/RadeonProgram

 

[vishalrao]

@unixguru: sounds like a FUD filled post

 

[alcy]

If you are going to use Linux buy only AMD/ATI cards. Do not buy NVidia graphics cards. Though Intel drivers are open source, Intel does not release the specifications for their IGP's. Though AMD's official driver is not open source, they release full specifications for all their graphics cards. Some of the best kernel gurus are working on writing a fully open source driver. AMD graphics, upto Radeon 4xxx, already has full 2d acceleration and basic 3d acceleration. By the end of this year all cards upto Radeon 4xxx will have full 3d acceleration and most probably the performance will be better than Windows as these drivers are written by the people who know the in's and out's the Linux Kernel and X. Another advantage is that you will have Gallium 3d support and KMS support which Nvidia has publicly disclosed that they are not interested in implementing. So I highly recommended getting a Radeon 4350 which is well within your budget and use the open source driver. I can confirm that normal videos play perfectly on Ubuntu 9.10 with less than 5% CPU utilization (using the IGP Radeon HD 3200). I think HD videos are not accelerated now and compiz does not work. The current functionality of the open source is not very good but the hard work of some of the best programmers will change that for sure.

I must also mention that though Nvidia has refused to give specifications of their graphics chips, a dedicated team of developers of the Noveau project are working one an open source driver by clean-room reverse engineering. Ubuntu 10.04 will use this driver as the default for Nvidia cards.

Edit: Compiz works in Fedora 12 according to [Phoronix] Open-Source ATI R600/700 3D Support In Fedora 12 . Chek this link for current status X.Org Wiki - RadeonProgram

I am not going to use linux, I have been using it as my main OS for about 3 years now & don't need to switch. But then it was mostly Intel hardware I dealt with.

I know that the "best progress" award surely belongs to ATI, but then they are still progressing, which is really great. But as of now, I guess I'd like to go with a hassle free full implementation , although closed source, by Nvidia. I am anyway not buying an expensive card, and hence switching to ATI later on won't be a problem. About the KMS & Gallium 3d support, they are not on my priority list as much as video playback(HD playback as well) is. But of course to have the best of all worlds, later, I re-emphasize, I would go with ATI.

I am currently checking out the wiki link you posted, and I hope I to find a card with lots of Platinum ratings.

oh, i would have thought its the other way around regarding upgradability hence futureproofing because i hear even amd's latest upcoming hexacore cpus will work with old am2+/am3 mobos according to latest anandtech articles. IMHO intel is ripping us off in mobo dept.. price of mobo is just too high.... im glad i got in with relatively good deal for q6600 and intel dp35dp mobo.

That's amazing on AMD's part really, but who knows what their actual decision would be later on regarding the mobo support. As of now I have settled for eight cores(well four real cores anyway) just fine.

 

[vishalrao]

fair enough. then i think gaurish's suggestion above is good - get the 9600gt for under rs 5k...

 

[hunt3r]

From what ive heard, Nvidia's linux drivers are far superior to AMD/ATI. Cant remember any links now but i think it was mentioned in Anandtech as well. So depending on your budget get the 9400/9500/9600 GT

 

[hellknight_mnd]

i've been running Fedora 12 since ages on my AMD Phenom II 720 BE and onboard Radeon 3300 HD graphics with compiz enabled.. HD videos work well.. just installed mesa drivers and ATI worked like breeze...

 

[alcy]

The thing is that the ATI cards similar to the onboard graphics you have, aren't perfect. I guess there's a post on Phoronix as well regarding your particular card & similar discreet cards.

 

[hunt3r]

Check out this article by anandtech. Donno if its useful for you or not but here it is AnandTech: Linux Gaming: Are We There Yet?

 

[alcy]

That's a cool article. What's more interesting about such articles is the test beds they use for reviewing ! hehe...gives one insight on the right stuff.

 

[Dark Star]

Check out this article by anandtech. Donno if its useful for you or not but here it is AnandTech: Linux Gaming: Are We There Yet?

I have gone through that article and I still wonder why anand sir allow its publication. Most of the games tested doesn't work natively which cannot give any idea on driver performance whether its ati or nvidia.

Coming to unixguru : He is 100% right. ATI have open sourced their hardware specs which make open source driver projects like radeonhd and xorg/mesa stack development easy, as a result you will have more and better feature out of the box.

On the OP question. Which one to buy ? If I were you I would have blindly picked any nv card when it comes to linux. Even though they have closed source approach they have many great technologies instilled in Linux, the coolbitss (oc utility0, VDAPAU, and many fancy technology that makes Linux usage pleasurable. Not to mention the new media center taking advantage of such technology. churning the most of your card and providing stunning acoustics and evey candy In the end I will say pick GT240 or Gt220. - 40nm lower power cooler processing.