Video card suggestion with good Linux support?

curtis@crunchbang:~$ 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. 

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

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.

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.

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.

Click to expand...

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

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

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.

MannDude said:

curtis@crunchbang:~$ 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. 

Click to expand...

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.

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.

Click to expand...

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.

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).

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).

Click to expand...

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... 

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.

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.

Click to expand...

What card are you using for four monitors?

fisle said:

What card are you using for four monitors?

Click to expand...

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.

trewq said:

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

Click to expand...

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.

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.

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.

Click to expand...

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.

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

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

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.