# Considering a graphics card or cpu, advice?

## Proinsias

I have an Intel Haswell 4130 with Intel HD Graphics 4400, I have 8GB of ram, in a Gigabyte Z87-HD3 motherboard. I have 1GB, max, of ram dedicated to the gpu set in the bios/uefi. This setup works and hasn't given me issues over the past few years but I do feel it straining a little sometimes.

I've found it struggling a little when using a dual monitor set-up for day to day use, my solution was to switch back to one monitor. I don't play a lot of games but stuff like SuperTuxKart, NeverBall or Empire:Total War & Team Fortress on Steam I'd like to be able to crank up the settings a little.

I'd like to have my dual monitor setup back and increase my gaming performance a little whilst keeping things simple and easy to manage. From what I've read nvidia cards with proprietary drivers give good performance but I don't like much of what I read about Nvidia in relation to linux in both company practices and the knock on effect of having additional complications in keeping portage/kernel up to date and things working smoothly. AMD cards, in my limited reading, are a little more linux friendly but at a performance cost, not sure on the maintenance. Are there any options for graphics cards beyond AMD/Nvidia?

I've been occasionally looking into this for the past year or so and starting to think that instead of adding a graphics card to my system, which may complicate my set up, a cpu upgrade to an i5 or i7 might help to keep things simple, manage two monitors and give me a little boost in gaming power......with a bonus of giving everything else a little extra too.

Option 1 - graphics card around £100-200

Option 2 - upgrade to i5 or i7 with 4600 graphics, maybe overclock which I don't have the option of with my i3-4130 

Option 3 - cheap graphics card ~£30-70 that will allow the i3-4130 processor to concentrate on cpu stuff

Thoughts?

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## Zucca

On the GPU side...

To my experience I prefer AMD GPUs on Linux, because the Open Source driver is so painless. BUT I don't know what's the current status of Nouveau for Nvidia GPUs.

I bought AMD R9 Nano just because it was on big sale here (350€).

From the AMD side I'd suggest you RX 480 or RX 470.

Someone else might know more of the Nvidia offerings. I think GTX 1060 might be good for your setup.

This topic might belong to 'Gentoo Chat' or 'Off The Wall'

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## mir3x

I would go for option 3.

I bought GF 430 GT for about 50 USD about 3 years ago

and even CS:GO is quite smooth ( on core 2 duo )

If u buy nvidia - buy something with starting with 6xx or more bc it will support Vulcan.

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## Proinsias

Thanks for the feedback, pointers are helpful...graphics card numbers and models are starting to make more sense now, after some more reading and a little youtube. 

Trying to get a rough idea of relative performance I looked into how my current integrated Intel 4400 hd graphics compare against the PS4 I was gifted a few months ago. It compared poorly. To get it on roughly on par or beyond the PS4 the GTX 750 TI seems popular and available locally second hand at ~£60-80. Think I'm gonna narrow my search a little down to gpu's around this performance and price point.

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