# Video card suggestion with good Linux support?



## MannDude (Jul 30, 2014)

[email protected]:~$ sensors
radeon-pci-0500
Adapter: PCI adapter
temp1: +79.0°C 

My workstation PC's video card is on a slow death. Fan actually hasn't worked in ages, probably a year or more. No joke. How it continues to run, I don't know. But now I'm getting tired of hearing the weird noises it makes and my PC has surprised me with a couple un-expected shutoffs, so I suppose it's time to replace it.

Only requirement is dual monitor support. Doesn't have to be fancy. This PC is 100% work. Netflix, gaming, etc is all done on a different PC. Bonus points if it's on Amazon _and_ Prime eligible.


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## yomero (Jul 30, 2014)

Probably any recent Nvidia card can do a good job. A 600-700 series in your budget range


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## Coastercraze (Jul 31, 2014)

Yup a 700 series card should do fine. I have a MSI Twin Frozer GTX 760 myself.

Since it's for work... here's a 750

http://www.amazon.com/MSI-Computer-Corp-N750-1GD5/dp/B00I6DLIFO/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1406784628&sr=8-10&keywords=GTX+750

$10 rebate makes it around $115 so not bad.


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## HalfEatenPie (Jul 31, 2014)

Go to the local salvage yard. Pick up a computer that has a video card. Boom.

I paid 45 dollars for a desktop (Core2duo, 8 GB RAM, 500 GB HDD, plus an old old video card). Just get the video card for dual monitor purposes and use the onboard on it as a crappy local file server or something.


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## trewq (Jul 31, 2014)

HalfEatenPie said:


> Go to the local salvage yard. Pick up a computer that has a video card. Boom.
> 
> 
> I paid 45 dollars for a desktop (Core2duo, 8 GB RAM, 500 GB HDD, plus an old old video card). Just get the video card for dual monitor purposes and use the onboard on it as a crappy local file server or something.


Oh how I wish this was a thing where I live.


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## fisle (Jul 31, 2014)

Yup, as others have mentioned - can't go wrong with Nvidia card. Only times I've ever had problems with graphics in Linux systems are the times when I didn't have Geforce


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## Wintereise (Jul 31, 2014)

Pick something that *doesn't* have a fan, if this is purely for workstation usage. Low end Nvidias like 550/650/750s are usually the best suited for the job.

Simple and quiet is the way to go.


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## Aldryic C'boas (Jul 31, 2014)

MannDude said:


> [email protected]:~$ sensors
> radeon-pci-0500
> Adapter: PCI adapter
> temp1: +79.0°C
> ...


I have a pair of spare GT610s (each supports 2 monitors) that you're welcome to, just kick me a shipping address.  ASUS-made, they work great - I only stopped using them after switching to a card that could handle 4 monitors.


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## MannDude (Jul 31, 2014)

Aldryic C said:


> I have a pair of spare GT610s (each supports 2 monitors) that you're welcome to, just kick me a shipping address.  ASUS-made, they work great - I only stopped using them after switching to a card that could handle 4 monitors.


Pardon my ignorance, but it looks like each card supports only one monitor? Or did you run a dual monitor setup using that using each (one for each monitor) with or without a crossfire or similar cable? 

I'm tempted. I actually ran dual cards in this box before, with a crossfire bridge cable and had support for 4 monitors... but at the time (and currently) only had/have two and not enough desk space for more. I gave the extra card I had to a buddy's little brother with some other parts as he wanted to learn to build a PC.

Anyhow, I'm tempted. Money saved on this can go towards a proper desk and chair.


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## Aldryic C'boas (Jul 31, 2014)

I used one at a time on two separate machines, each machine with two monitors   But aye, each card will run two monitors at once just fine (I only used VGA/DVI, so I can't give any sort of opinion for the HDMI).

I also had a four monitor setup with both cards in one rig - but that required some X shennanigans, and I had to disable a few options I was rather fond of (like real transparency), hence why I switched.  One of these will work just fine for what you want, but you're welcome to both of them if you'd like (I don't have any more use for either of them).


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## MannDude (Jul 31, 2014)

Aldryic C said:


> I used one at a time on two separate machines, each machine with two monitors   But aye, each card will run two monitors at once just fine (I only used VGA/DVI, so I can't give any sort of opinion for the HDMI).
> 
> I also had a four monitor setup with both cards in one rig - but that required some X shennanigans, and I had to disable a few options I was rather fond of (like real transparency), hence why I switched.  One of these will work just fine for what you want, but you're welcome to both of them if you'd like (I don't have any more use for either of them).



I see. So you had (for example), one monitor connected via VGA and the other monitor via DVI on the same card? I'm actually not a PC hardware guy, it was always my previous assumption that cards like that were more or less to give the end-user more options as to how to use it, not so much an option for multiple monitors. I've got a handful of spare VGA, DVI and even HDMI cables laying around and an adapter or two somewhere...


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## Aldryic C'boas (Jul 31, 2014)

Yup, bingo.  I never really got into the whole HDMI thing, so I used DVI for my primary monitors, and VGA for my secondaries off of the same cards.

Most newer MBs (last few years or so) will do this as well - if you have both a DVI and VGA, you can dual-monitor it.  But I still prefer using a dedicated card.


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## fisle (Jul 31, 2014)

Aldryic C said:


> I have a pair of spare GT610s (each supports 2 monitors) that you're welcome to, just kick me a shipping address.  ASUS-made, they work great - I only stopped using them after switching to a card that could handle 4 monitors.



What card are you using for four monitors?


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## Aldryic C'boas (Jul 31, 2014)

fisle said:


> What card are you using for four monitors?


The nVidia NVS 510.  Initial configuration was a bit of the PITA on Debian, but once I got it working like I wanted (took an hour or two, tops), it's been fantastic.


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## HalfEatenPie (Jul 31, 2014)

trewq said:


> Oh how I wish this was a thing where I live.


Haha well the salvage yard I went to is right next to a university that's phasing out their old hardware for newer ones. I saw an i5 with 4GB RAM and 500 GB HDD for 175 USD. It just depends on when you get there.


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## Aldryic C'boas (Jul 31, 2014)

Heh, I've brought home a handful of i5 6MB RAM IBM towers over the past few months now that Coke's updating hardware again.  Haven't gotten around to actually doing anything with them yet, though.


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## D. Strout (Jul 31, 2014)

Aldryic C said:


> Heh, I've brought home a handful of i5 6MB RAM IBM towers over the past few months now that Coke's updating hardware again.  Haven't gotten around to actually doing anything with them yet, though.


6MB RAM? Ouch! Seriously, though, if @MannDude doesn't want/need both of those GT610s, I'd love to get my hands on one. Happy to pay shipping, let me know.


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## rmlhhd (Jul 31, 2014)

I've got a GTX 660 in my gaming PC, works wonders with Ubuntu 14.04. Cheap aswell.


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## Aldryic C'boas (Jul 31, 2014)

Ahaha, whoops.  s/MB/GB/.  Though I still do have an old 128MB tower sitting out in the garage....


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## drmike (Jul 31, 2014)

I've been in dual video card replacement mode this week.  Someone dragged a PC along during a desk rotation / slide move job, undid the PCI dual video card then it plunked back into the PCI slot wrong and went poof.

Destroyed the video card and appears the PCI section of the motherboard.

Have replacement (old) gear on hand now, so have a long sucky session migrating machines and trying to get everyting working.   Considering my luck with such typically, going to be a long 24 hours or so.


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## William (Aug 1, 2014)

Only had issues with AMD 6XXX (a 6850) and AMD 7XXX (a 7950) with Linux, no matter what drivers (tried a lot of distros as well, from Opensuse over *buntu to Arch) - A GT 730 worked perfectly fine in any. Never had an issue with onboard Intel with Linux either.

In the Mac i use now i didn't get the 6850 to work (which was sort of expected in OS 10.9 as lots of drivers were just 10.8) but the 7950 works flawlessly, same for the GT 730 (using a 5 digital output system, 3+2)

For Mac/Hackintosh/Linux Nvidia in general is much more favourable than AMD. Intel works fine on both as well and is stable but not the fastest (even in new i7s). I'd use AMD exclusively on Win.


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## Jonathan (Aug 1, 2014)

I've never had any trouble with any Nvidia card.  Got one in my laptop with Fedora, work desktop also running Fedora, and one at home.

Noveau and closed-source drivers both work well with the latter giving a bit better performance in my exeperience in 3d applications like games.  For browsing and general work stuff Noveau works fine.


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