# Recommended video cards?

## insanecanuck

Alright, I figured I'd post this here and get some valuable tips.

What cards have been tried and tested under linux and have hardware acceleration support under X and won't be too much of a hassle to set up? Something almost "low-end" would be nice, I'm not really an avid gamer but if it will allow me to play most games okay at 1024x768 if I want, it would be nice.

What cards do you guys use, how much trouble did you have setting them up and are you happy with them?

I'm pretty much a n00b when it comes to graphics, heh.

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## squeaksy

Well i am using a GeForce 4 mx440 64meg DDR

and well it was CHEAP ASS... $80 australian

it has Damn good performance for that price though, i can play all games i tried pretty much smoothly

i have a 1.1gig celeron with 512 meg ram...

in a little shitty card like that is k, and the drivers are piss easy to install under linux, just read up some docs and search the forums for the video card if you buy one

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## insanecanuck

Heh, found it at my local big, impersonal computer store. $99, seems dirt cheap.

Although I must admit that I am in no way a gamer, I barely play games but I'd still like to have the opportunity to. I'm not looking for anything very high-end.

Hm, what about the "GeForce FX5200"?

Linky: http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&dept=18&WLBS=fs%2Dweb1&sku_id=0665000FS10030704&catid=&newdeptid=18

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## squeaksy

Yes nice nice, but if you want performance i would recommend going for a Ati Radeon 9xxx..... they are fairly cheap and have Excellent performance..

but they are a little bit trickier to get set up in linux i believe

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## insanecanuck

Hrm.. the Radeon 9200 seems nice.

Any idea how hard it is hard to set up?

I don't mind fiddling around but I of course prefer 30 minutes of fiddling to 6 hours  :Smile: 

I'll do a search at the forums here for it.

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## squeaksy

i am not exactly how hard it is to set up but what ive found is that if you are having trouble installing video cards, just use the default drivers, get linux up and running and just nag and search the forums till some helps you ^^;;;

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## Moled

don't touch *any* ati cards

and don't get a 5200

get a gf 4 ti of some sort instead

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## insanecanuck

In other threads most people seem to recommend the GeForce 4 Ti4200.

Right now, I'm looking at: http://www.factorydirect.ca/cgi-bin/product_spec.pl/GF4200

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## Shiven

yeah... avoid ATI cards if you can... ive got a 9200, and been working on it pretty much 4 hours a day for a week, and im still getting a really bad score on glx-gears. not nice to setup  :Sad: ... ah well... back to it  :Smile: 

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## Malakin

Here's a ti 4200 128MB DDR for $135cnd (and it's not refurbished).

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=602816&sku=TC3G-1008

http://www.bfgtech.com/4200_redux.html

se seems to mean it doesn't have a dvi connector so you can't do dual head with it or hook it up to a digital display but that won't make any difference for most people.

I got myself an FX5600 for $195cnd recently, it's about as fast as the ti4200 but once you turn on AA/AF it can be up to three times faster plus it's a direct X 9 card but you said you're not that into gaming so it shouldn't matter :)

You can get a GF 4 MX440 DDR for about $70cnd, it works well in linux as does any Nvidia card and it's good for light gaming. If you buy one of these just make sure it uses DDR memory and not SDR.

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## dirtboy

I have two machines, one with a 9500 pro and one with a TI4200.  They both work fine, great 3d scores, but the PNY TI4200 died on me two weeks ago.  The upside is they are replacing under warranty, just take awhile.

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## insanecanuck

I grabbed the reburbished card from Factory Direct the next day, works great. Just tested TV-out today, quite nifty. Refurbished stuff is great really, I just got the card in a nice small bag instead of a bigass cardboard box with a useless manual and drivers for Windows.

I picked up the required TV-out cables today from the dollar store for $4. I think that no cables, manual or useless windows drivers is a good riddance if it bumps the price down +$100.

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## firaX

i d go for an nvidia card as the drivers are obviously alot better for them.

A mate of me got a radeon and has poor performance under linux.

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## neocui

Def GF TI4200...  i got one for $80.. def don't touch the MX... they're not really GF4's

Also, if you want to play games, (ig WineX), ATI's won't work.

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