Should I switch to Nvidia?

[bubba314]

Hi all,

I am currently using an ATI HD 3650 graphics card. However, it doesn't work well in Linux. I have a 23" LCD HD Acer monitor. I would like to get a cheap graphics card that will handle that type of monitor, and I'm guessing that I should get an Nvidia, as they have better drivers for Linux. I have to have an AGP interface. I want to make sure that I can get full-screen video and not have glitchy/choppy graphics.

Any ideas as to what kind I should buy? The cheapest, but best, fix is preferred. If I could get a cheap used card, that would be fantastic, say under $40

Computer specs:

http://www.dealtime.com/xPF-CPQ-SR1230N ... NX-Desktop

Thanks!

[rich_roast]

If I could get a cheap used card, that would be fantastic, say under $40

I'd say any Nvidia GeForce or above being offered on eBay would fit the bill: this GeForce would run quite acceptably (although it was quite an old card by today's standards and it needed a fan, larf , it would provide plenty of 3d acceleration for most anything but serious gaming) and it was a snip at about $11 all in. Double check that it'll work with your lcd monitor but I honestly don't recall that being a problem, at least not back when I had one on my desktop.

Since you're limited to agp anyway, I think you'll be able to satisfy both your rather low budget and your hardware requirements quite satisfactorily; although whichever card you plump for may be quite dated compared with present day technology, this doesn't matter so much on a Linux box where you're wanting it to run enough OGL to let compiz do its work and maybe the most demanding of (native) games will be something like Alien Arena, which any GeForce above 2 should be able to run acceptably well.

[bubba314]

Thanks for the advice!

[dequire]

Yepp i agree - any GF 5200 or up will work fine. As a bonus, many of the 5200's are fanless.