Recommendations for a nVidia card for Linux 64bit.

[murx]

I am new to nVidia, hoping to defect from an ATI RAdeon 9550.

I am looking for a nVidia AGP 256MB graphics card to be used in a Linux Machine, running 64 & 32bit debian based distros; Xubuntu and agnula/demuidi.

I need screen res of 1920 x 1200 for a Dell 24" tft screen.

I really do not know the pecking order of nVidia card, I have a bugdet of about £75-£90, I am based in the UK.

I have seen these as possible options:

XFX Geforce 6800XTreme 256MB DDR3 AGP Dual DVI TV Out
https://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/....html?XFX-68XT

Club 3D nVidia GeForce 7600GS 256MB DDR3 DVI/TV Out (AGP) - Retail
http://www.tekheads.co.uk/s/product?product=606215


Any other suggestions would be welcomed.

I really want a card that works with Linux and gives nice pleasing graphics.

MY other HW is a self built AMD64 3200 2.0GHz CPU, 1G Ram, several HDDs.

MAny thanks for any advice on this.

[pe1chl]

I think the "64 bit" does not really matter, a 64-bit driver is available from nvidia and it can be used with all their recent cards.
However, I find it interesting that you are looking for a card for a 64-bit system but you need AGP. I would think that the introduction of PCI-X and 64 bit occurred at about the same time and any 64-bit system would be PCI not AGP. So be sure to doublecheck that.

I am using an XFX 6600GT card with that display (and AGP), and it works OK. What I do not like so much is the power consumption and resulting heat.
Also, be advised that some of the nice features you will find on the spec sheets are only supported on Windows, not on Linux.
Strangely, Linux support focusses on accelerated 3D (via OpenGL), which right now is mainly useful for games and in the future may be useful with some window managers that are mainly there to impress visitors.
I think many Linux users would be interested more in accelerated video decoding and filtering, but the PureVideo feature that you would want for that is not available in the Linux driver.

[wizdom]

Many of the earlier Socket 754 boards were AGP. I've had a GeForce 6600 GT AGP work fine on a S754 mainboard under 64bit Linux. What bugs did originally exist, have been fixed.

However I would not recommend investing in the card until NVIDIA release an Xorg 7.1 compatible driver. Modern 64bit distributions simply do not work with the current driver.

[BashfulTux]

Originally Posted by wizdom

Many of the earlier Socket 754 boards were AGP. I've had a GeForce 6600 GT AGP work fine on a S754 mainboard under 64bit Linux. What bugs did originally exist, have been fixed.

However I would not recommend investing in the card until NVIDIA release an Xorg 7.1 compatible driver. Modern 64bit distributions simply do not work with the current driver.

What a load of bull most "modern distros" are not even shipping with Xorg 7.1 Gentoo does not have it unless you go out of your way to get it, Fedora the same, Ubuntu no, Debian no I image the same for most others. The vast majority of Nvidia cards work fine with the current Xorg 7.0 and when Nvidia gets around to shipping the next driver in a little while it will support Xorg 7.1 so give it a break with the FUD.

To the OP I would go with the 6800 out of your two choices listed as it has the DDR3 and 256bit memory interface. I have a 5900 I got used that I am very happy with so if you thinking the second hand route maybe consider something like it.

[cjcox]

I use a 7600GT PCIe on a dual (dual core) Opteron... with 64bit OpenSUSE 10.1. Works perfectly.

[murx]

Thanks for your replies everyone.

my mobo is a MSI K8N-Neo
CPU skt 754 AMD64 3200

my distros are al debian based: 64Studio for music production, Xubuntu 32bit & 64bit soon to updrage from Breezy to Dapper & Agnula/Demuudi which I just can nto seem to get connected to the internet.

I am happy to spend anything up to about £85 on a new card.

[Xevious]

I don''t know why people think AMD 64 and pci-express came about at around the same time, I think amd64 was out for quite a while, 6months-1 year before pci-express was sprouting up.

My system is a MSI K8T-Neo2
Works great with a pny 6600 gt running gentoo with a 64 bit kernel.

My card had an overheating problem, so I would stay away from pny; however, I had to get a PNY due to its dual-link DVI support, it even has two.

[pe1chl]

I work in an Intel-only environment, maybe that is why I am confused.

My 6600GT card is from XFX, and while it has no overheating *problem*, it certainly runs hot. I have read comments on this forum that very old drivers made the 6600GT run cooler. It may be dependent on how the device is configured and used?
(a CPU generates a lot more heat when it is running in a loop than when it sits waiting for an interrupt; maybe there is a similar situation in a GPU?)

[Xevious]

with my pny 6600gt, it was running 90c idle when I got it and would crash @ 135C when gaming, since putting AS-5 and using some cable ties to put more pressure on the heatsync my temps have gone down to 70c idle and 105c under load, still high, but much better. It was just crappy cooling.