high end desktop linux friendly video cards

blu3ness · 2008-02-28 23:09:05

Hello all, looking to replace my 5 year old rig with a new one; I've suffered horribly setting up linux on my radeon 9600xt, and I don't want to repeat it again. Anyway, long story short, I'm building my new rig around the budget of $1000 this summer. Therefore, I'm looking for hardware that's fairly new and would be able to be fully compatible with linux.

With that being said, I know I really don't have a lot of options when it comes to video cards, Nvidia 8800gts or 9600gt seems ideal for me, but I'm a little bit sketchy on their power-consumptions, (8800gt uses 40W on idle). On the other hand, Radeon x3870 is a lot more power-friendly, only consumes 17 W on idle, and the performance is definitely enough for me. Now, the problem becomes drivers for linux, with ATI being notorious on their drivers, I'm not sure if I should even CONSIDER radeon. HOWEVER, if I completely disregard Linux compatibility, I would definitely go with a 3870 for its price and energy efficiencies.

Anyone have similar issues? How did you address it?

Thanks!

coarseSand · 2008-02-28 23:31:21

I'm doing the exact same thing as you are this summer, since I'm tired of dealing with my abyssmal HP laptop and plan to replace it with an $800-$900 CAD system (before I start adding on some ridiculous monitors. A pair of the new Dell 22-inchers looks mighty appealing). I've had the same terrible experiences with ATI cards though, and such a wonderful time with Nvidia GPUs that I'm going to avoid ATI entirely this time around. The question for me is which Nvidia card to go with, especially since the 40W consumption on the 8800GT is really bizarre (but that particular card is known for running with excessive heat expenditure, somewhere in the 90 C range at full load). I'm probably going to go back and use an Nvidia 7xxx series for a while, since really the 8xxx series was the 7 with DirectX 10 support (excluding the 8800 Ultra and similar cards). Literally, the 7950 is the same as the 8600.

post-script: I haven't followed the graphics market in a month or two and what do I miss but the release of the 9600GT. I'm no so sure if it's the holy grail for me at the moment since it's probably fairly similar to the 8800GT in its heat problems, but it has the budget sweetness without ATI's well known crapulence.

blu3ness · 2008-02-29 02:06:31

Hey coarseSand, I am in Canada as well, and basically I agree with what you said. I'll consider the 7xxx series as an alternative. I'm still hoping that the radeonhd or the catalyst 8.0x series linux drivers will catch up to nvidia by the summer. In all honesty, nvidia bugs me quite a bit on their price and energy efficiency. However, I am dam jealous of the fully working desktops and laptops that uses nvidia cards tho...

coarseSand · 2008-02-29 04:30:37

Nvidia's price doesn't bug me quite as much because I'm very aware of the fact that you get what you pay for when it comes to almost any hardware (learned that by becoming a headphone geek). ATI has consistently screwed me, especially since becoming a Linux user as the ATI drivers are consistently worse than the ones for the Nvidia cards (and as for the chips themselves, do not get me started on the Xpress 200m and OpenGL). That said the heat/power consumption issues really makes me worry about the 8 series, unless I buy the Antec 900 gamer case, which is a distinct possibility. I read a quick review of the 9600GT and it looks like the 3850 pummels it for power consumption, but it actually beats out the 3870 for performance/power (the entire system that the 3870 is on in the review uses 7 fewer watts idle). I haven't seen anything about it duplicating the 8800GT's ridiculous heat yet, so as long as that doesn't become a factor it may replace the silly little 7300 I was going to leave in my machine.

Speaking of the Antec 900 case, canadacomputers.com has it on now for thirty bucks off Antec's store's price. I've heard a bunch of great reviews for it from several people who actually own it, so if I wind up building my machine it's probably going to be the case I use.

blu3ness · 2008-02-29 05:41:49

Definitely off topic, but this is my first time ordering parts online, so far I've only considered ncix and tigerdirect, any other suggestions? I god dam hope that newegg would open a canada site... o well

coarseSand · 2008-02-29 07:17:20

Yeah, this is totally off topic, but since it seems to just be us chatting I'll answer. I was looking at ordering most of my stuff from TigerDirect too, never heard of ncix though. I got recommended Canada Computers recently through one of the game development guys at my college, and they seem to have better deals than TD. Besides those two I can't make too many recommendations, though I've heard of a lot of people having issues with NewEgg's customer service so I'm not sure why you'd want to deal with them.

Mikko777 · 2008-02-29 10:09:26

I doubt that ati is any more energy efficient than nvidia atleast on linux.

It only idles lower, and it wont prolly even work in linux. Go with nvidia 9600 if you get a good deal.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2008/0 … cs_card/13

Last edited by Mikko777 (2008-02-29 10:13:06)

KimTjik · 2008-02-29 10:25:28

Nvidia's latest driver 169.12 doesn't support the 9600 card yet. No real gains in getting the latest in view of the trouble Nvidia had to get their driver to work with the 8xxx serie (ok, the 9600 isn't really a totally new card, it just has a confusing number).

Nvidia is safer, but I would suggest you picked one from the 88xx serie of cards. Picking the latest might be a gamble.

Slammer64 · 2008-02-29 17:32:18

I have an nVidia 8800GT OC from BFG and it never runs more than 65C at max load? And I user the Antec 900 case myself, so maybe that's why?

Last edited by Slammer64 (2008-02-29 17:34:04)

coarseSand · 2008-02-29 18:56:00

@KimTjik: I think both of our purchases are a few months off, which should give Nvidia some time to include 9600 support.

@Slammer64: Seriously? I kept hearing how the chip could reach over 90C at full load. Then again, it may only be measuring 65C, the excess heat is probably getting dumped into the rest of the case, which would be fine with the 900, that thing has some beasts for fans.

blu3ness · 2008-02-29 19:22:11

Just installed 8600GTS 512 Mb version from EVGA for a friend, the card runs hot even when it wasn't put into a case.

Googled it and it is a consistent problem among 8600s, but in the end the card is designed to withstand at least 90 C of heat, so I guess that's "working as intended"

Last edited by blu3ness (2008-02-29 19:23:48)

friet · 2008-04-14 14:55:17

i have a 8800gts from gigabyte and even in idle mode over 75degrees temperature;

skottish · 2008-04-14 15:56:32

The 8800GT, 512MB card in my workstation both idles and runs consistently around 52C until OpenGL kicks in. I achieved this by installing an after market fan (Thermaltake if I remember correctly).

Dheart · 2008-04-14 17:29:08

Anything from nvidia will do Just avoid ati... at least untill they start releasing linux drivers at least at nvidia's level...

dabski · 2008-04-15 08:51:58

Here is a list of video cards and their power consumption, you might also want to look into HybridPower if your getting a motherboard with an on-board nvidia GPU.
http://www.atomicmpc.com.au/forums.asp?s=2&c=7&t=9354
The 9600 GT, 8800 GT and 9800 GTX all seam like good solutions with relatively low idle power consumption. I guess it depends on how much you game, what games you play and the resolution/quality that you want to be able to play them at. The 9600GT and 8800GT are the cheaper of the two and if you don't need much power go with the 9600GT, if you need more power but are on a low budget go with the 8800GT and if money is no matter to you just get the 9800GTX the idle power consumption is very close to the 8800GT and it has better performance

coarseSand · 2008-04-16 03:01:56

I can confirm that the 9600GT is godly on Linux right now. I was forced into purchasing my computer earlier than expected because the other one failed, and decided to go with it after reading the Phoronix beta driver review.

If you want the extra 3-5 fps, get the 8800GT. Otherwise, get the 9600GT and save yourself fifty bucks, the difference between the two probably isn't going to be worth it. I'm running Quake Wars full out at 60 fps with it, including some extra options in my config to extend draw distance. It's not going to pound Crysis into the floor, but guys, we're on Linux. We don't have a Crysis, unless you're dual booting, in which case shame on you.

I can also attest to the Antec 900 case running ice cold with both a 9600GT and an Intel Q6600 inside. And seriously consider adding in a quad core blu3ness, it's a big speed boost in a threaded program, or anything else you happen to do (i.e. virtualized Windows XP, which seems to only use one of the cores, letting the other three do something else).

Arch Linux

#1 2008-02-28 23:09:05

high end desktop linux friendly video cards

#2 2008-02-28 23:31:21

Re: high end desktop linux friendly video cards

#3 2008-02-29 02:06:31

Re: high end desktop linux friendly video cards

#4 2008-02-29 04:30:37

Re: high end desktop linux friendly video cards

#5 2008-02-29 05:41:49

Re: high end desktop linux friendly video cards

#6 2008-02-29 07:17:20

Re: high end desktop linux friendly video cards

#7 2008-02-29 10:09:26

Re: high end desktop linux friendly video cards

#8 2008-02-29 10:25:28

Re: high end desktop linux friendly video cards

#9 2008-02-29 17:32:18

Re: high end desktop linux friendly video cards

#10 2008-02-29 18:56:00

Re: high end desktop linux friendly video cards

#11 2008-02-29 19:22:11

Re: high end desktop linux friendly video cards

#12 2008-04-14 14:55:17

Re: high end desktop linux friendly video cards

#13 2008-04-14 15:56:32

Re: high end desktop linux friendly video cards

#14 2008-04-14 17:29:08

Re: high end desktop linux friendly video cards

#15 2008-04-15 08:51:58

Re: high end desktop linux friendly video cards

#16 2008-04-16 03:01:56

Re: high end desktop linux friendly video cards

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