# best video card: DVI 2D linux only?

## torchZ06

can somebody give me some advice as to what the best video card for my application would be: i don't play any games or do any 3D stuff-- just coding and web surfing and perhaps watching DVDs.

i just got a samsung 213T LCD and i'd like to get a video card with DVI-- i've currently got it hooked to my old GeForce 2 GTS.

so far i've been recommended a ATI 9600XT and GeForce FX 5600-- both seem like they might be overkill.

the main requirement is that it drive my 21" LCD at it's native res of 1600x1200 and be 100% linux compatible-- don't run windows and don't want to mess around trying to get the thing to be stable under Xfree.

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## drb

I am also looking for a similar card.

Wanted: Video card with completely open source drivers that fully and correctly support all of the functions of the card. Must be capable of DVI output of 1280x1024 in 24/32 bpp colour at minimum 60Hz refresh rate, S-Video output, AGP 4 or 8, and have passive cooling. 2D quality as good or better than a Matrox G550. 3D acceleration and a video processor fast enough for casual gaming would be nice. Anyone know of such a card?

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## nl

For what it's worth, I am using an ATI Radeon 7500, with a Dell 2000FP connected to the DVI output, and have been quite satisfied with this setup for about 8 months thus far. For 2D, it works quite nicely, and since I play no games the reduced gaming capacity of this card compared with newer models has not been a problem. 

This card is supported by the radeon driver for X >=4.2.0. I have not installed any of the ati-vendor drivers, nor have I tried to get drm working as of yet. With Glx enabled, glxgears gives me frame rates of around 380 fps, but I have no idea if that is good or not.

I am considering an upgrade to the ATI Radeon 9600, for no reason other than Best Buy has it for $75 after rebate in tomorrow's day-after-thanksgiving sale, and since I am going there to get other stuff I might impulse buy it.

In terms of 2D, btw, I have been told that the Matrox cards are the best. YMMV. I wound up with the ATI because I got the 7500 at a great price, and I was in a rush because the Dell LCD monitor looked awful on the nVidia GeForce 2MX I was using when I bought it. Some LCDs, including the Dell, are highly dependent on DVI vs VGA, while my earlier NEC 1850X LCD looked superb with the GeForce in VGA mode. Go figure.

nl

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## Malakin

If you do buy an ATI based card just make sure it's an ATI or Sapphire card, I would avoid any others unless you either know it's good or you have a decent return policy.

The 9600se's have 64bit memory bus and are very slow, avoid these also.

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## drb

Does the video quality of the video card make any difference in DVI mode?

There have been many reviews in the past that compared the video quality of  various VGA video cards. Differences in the video cards were quite apparent due to differences in the design of the analogue sections of the video cards.

I wonder if this still exists in the digital video realm. Since the video is completely digital, one would expect no difference in the picture quality between video cards, after all a one is a one and a zero is a zero. Is there any reviews or comparisons that compare video quality of different video cards where all the cards are using DVI digital output?

There seems to be differences in LCD displays, but that would most likely be due to the design of the LCD itself.

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## Akaihiryuu

I have a Radeon 7500 in my machine as well.  Unfortunately I'm still stuck with a 7-year-old dirt cheap CRT (so generic it just says "Ultra" on the front!), but I definitely got my money's worth.  ($70 brand new in the box, 7 years ago, for a monitor that does up to 1024x768x60Hz with digital controls really wasn't a bad deal!)  I'm hoping to get a monitor that can use the DVI output of this card sometime within the next year.  I've found the Radeon 7500 to be an awesome card.  I'm using a K6-3+ 450 in that machine, and even with the low processor specs compared to newer machines, I've been able to run a lot of games that "require" a 700 Mhz P3 or Athlon, and actually run them well.  I figure, putting a card faster than the 7500 in that machine would be a waste, as my CPU wouldn't be able to handle any games that used the additional features of the newer cards, so that 7500 is pretty much the ideal card for that machine.  Any card that lets me play Warcraft 3 with full effects on a K6 is definitely a good thing.   :Wink:   It works beautifully under Linux too, actually I seem to have better 3D support in Linux than I do in Win9x.  I'm glad to hear that DVI on the 7500 works well in Linux...I look forward to trying it when I get a digital LCD.

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