Video card selection for those considering building a primarily linux machine.

[medievalman86]

I seem to remeber a while back, that ATI video cards seemed to have issues working- atleast as far as the desktop effects. So, Im wondering

atleast in regards to FC10 and Ubuntu 8.10

are the ATI issues largely fixed?

for instance, if i bought a newer ATI card- say the 4800 seris. would it "plug and play"?-would it be a complicated string of sudo codes, killing gnome, reboots, more codes, and rebooting again? or would it be "Plug in, Install driver from repository or AMD website. reboot, play with cube"?

what are some good newer Nvidia?

8000 and 9000 seris?

with both brands, and with the newer cards (so no radeon x1300) which would be some to look at, and some to avoid.. which ones are "so easy a caveman can do it" 99% of the time, and which are "only if you haave 3 doctorates in coding"

[jayd512]

Some AYI cards can still have issues. But nVidia is pretty easy to work with these days. You shouldn't have to many problems. Fedora has a command or two that you may have tou run... but depending on the actual model number, so would Ubuntu. Which distro are you going to use? What card?

[medievalman86]

Some AYI cards can still have issues. But nVidia is pretty easy to work with these days. You shouldn't have to many problems. Fedora has a command or two that you may have tou run... but depending on the actual model number, so would Ubuntu. Which distro are you going to use? What card?

well, Im using Ubuntu. and a 9600GT card. im having a lot of issues with the card

filed a bug report here:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/305221

but im just thinking in more general terms- what seris of cards are generally- 90% of the time- the easiest to have work "instantly" and which should be avoided.

[medievalman86]

course, In fedora 10, after i punch in the codes, restart, and enable the effects. If i reboot- the loading baar comes up, but then the screen goes black cept for a little cursor in the top right of screen. It has stayed that way for a consecutive 24hour period.

[jayd512]

For nVidia drivers, see if this page will help: Fedora Nvidia Driver Install Guide

[Dapper Dan]

well, Im using Ubuntu. and a 9600GT card. im having a lot of issues with the card

Did you use EnvyNG yet? That was the only way I could get my Nvidia configured with Ubuntu...

sudo apt-get install envyng-core

To run in terminal:

envyng -t

There is a gtk front end you can install but the terminal version is so easy it seems rather pointless to use a "gui."

[jayd512]

well, Im using Ubuntu. and a 9600GT card..

course, In fedora 10...

Good deal, Dan... I was only looking at the Fedora side of it!

[medievalman86]

in ubuntu, ive tried envy. tried the repo versions, tried the version from Nvidia webiste direct. they all llead to the problem youll find in the link to the bug i filed.

ill post the problems ive had in fedora in a seperate post later. once i find weather or not the ubuntu developers have a fix. really, i was just asking for maybe a few models that others have worked with that have been found for instance- the ATI 4800 seris- yo uhave first hand knowledge that the drivers from AMD work "right out of the box" or the Nvidia 8800?

My goal is to build an entertainment computer, dual graphics, quad core, lots of ram, and blu ray... hopefully with a linux operating system.... and apperently the 9600 is discontinued... so now im browsing for cards that well work out of the box.