Best card for under $100

[Panix]

As I mentioned before, I got used gtx260sp216 with 1792gb gddr3 for 70€ incl shipping. Thats 2x-2.5x performance of 9800.
The newer 400/500 are more energy efficient, but their core/mem frequency scaling is not implemented and they have very funny nvidia-made slowdown in specific opengl code, making card behave slower 8800.
Nvidia apparently desided that opengl is reserved for quattro and decided to castrate the driver, saying its card problems. I heared there is a workaround via cuda code.
Other than this 400/500 is definitely way to go(if you accept nvidia), except <460/560.

The card, while using above average power in idle, scales, has video acceleration and provides all 3d performance. I have not tested double dvi outputs (i dont need them).

On Amd, the open drivers do not deliver full performance, but the basic and middle gaming is covered with semi-opengl3. They have a bit more bugs in 3d, but are faster in 2d.
I dont like proprietary amd at all, people report its improved, but I dont like open/close simbitism because the closed driver loses to nvidia(the advantage/disadvantage field is very spread one, not definite), but open driver is deemed to be like second class. Of course, if you do not use discrete card for 3d, open driver possibly will cover your needs.

If you are into gaming on linux, nvidia. This includes wine. If you want to improve opensource or closed source amd driver, this means sometimes having problems (instead of working state, especially in newer hardware) and helping correct them - use amd. Sad or not, this is current behavior of companies.

I think you're right!

I can't decide whether to get a GTX 460 or Radeon 5850 ($139) if I go ATI. But, the Radeon 5xxx and 6xxx cards are probably a waste of money at this point? It seems there's too many problems or bugs if you want all features since you have to use catalyst. I think AMD/ATI makes excuses when their support still falls short even if it's closed.

Edit: GTX 560 is $139 w/ rebate... good price? How much power/temps is it compared to a 460? Is this too expensive a card for Linux? I guess Nvidia drivers will eventually mature with some bugs or issues but probably less than fglrx & 5850, right?

[cbxbiker61]

I think you're right!

I can't decide whether to get a GTX 460 or Radeon 5850 ($139) if I go ATI. But, the Radeon 5xxx and 6xxx cards are probably a waste of money at this point? It seems there's too many problems or bugs if you want all features since you have to use catalyst. I think AMD/ATI makes excuses when their support still falls short even if it's closed.

Edit: GTX 560 is $139 w/ rebate... good price? How much power/temps is it compared to a 460? Is this too expensive a card for Linux? I guess Nvidia drivers will eventually mature with some bugs or issues but probably less than fglrx & 5850, right?

gtx560ti and gtx460 are both great cards under Linux. I have a MSI gtx560ti twin frozer gold edition and a Palit gtx460. The twin frozer's are awesome cards, extremely quiet even when working relatively hard. The only way to make my twin frozer break a sweat (and make some noise) is to run Furmarks under Wine. Furmarks is known to fry cards that don't have proper power management. OilRush runs well on both cards, a bit faster on the 560ti though.

[crazycheese]

I think you're right!

Its my point of view. If you buy discrete card, driver feature-side nvidia tops, application compatibility/bugs nvidia tops(still had to work with pixbuf in xorg.conf for kde4), card binary driver support frame nvidia tops.
AMD seems to have near values, but not exceeding. The only things where AMD binary is better is some 3D performance (where their linux driver is faster than windows driver, barely case for nvidia) and multimonitor support.

Open drivers, you better go AMD. But this means you will be cutting on card actuall performance. No top performance with opensource AMD. Whats the reason to buy discrete card, then ...

I can't decide whether to get a GTX 460 or Radeon 5850 ($139) if I go ATI.

GTX 460 = 2x speed of GTX 260sp216
GTX 560Ti = ~GTX470
No idea about radeon, I decided against amd route in the end.

It seems there's too many problems or bugs if you want all features since you have to use catalyst.

Catalyst does not provide all features and/or @optimum performance as far as I know.

Edit: GTX 560 is $139 w/ rebate... good price? How much power/temps is it compared to a 460? Is this too expensive a card for Linux? I guess Nvidia drivers will eventually mature with some bugs or issues but probably less than fglrx & 5850, right?

Why not used on ebay? Sometimes you can spare money, of course there is RISK.
I heard people complaining about 4xx/5xx in linux due to driver quality. I don´t know if its sorted out. Still no fan/speed control though.

There is no such thing as "too expensive card for Linux" mate. There can be "crappy drivers to use the card" though.

[Richard Wolf VI]

The experience with the GTS 250 has been fantastical, with the HD Graphics 2000, Minecraft was running at 20 fps at most and with an awful antialiasing glitch we couldn't fix. The GTS 250 gives at least 300 fps.

Other games, like Cogs, look equally improved. There haven't been any X crashes nor image corruption like it happened with the Intel graphics. It also gave the correct resolution without workarounds. In all, we can recommend the card, no matter its age. It works and it works greatly, given no card can match it in price at the moment.

[AlbertP]

I heard people complaining about 4xx/5xx in linux due to driver quality. I don´t know if its sorted out.

With the binary driver it's working well on the newest Ubuntu version, and with Nouveau it's working fine from the 3.1/3.2 kernel on (except 410M and 520 series).

[DanL]

So to answer the question at this point in time, you can get a GTS 450 or RadeonHD 6750 (Turks core) for a c-note. If you count mail-in rebates and you have a few extra dollars, you can get a GTX 550 Ti or a RadeonHD 6790 (Barts core).
(Used newegg as price reference.)

[letocha]

Thanks to VDPAU sets C,

This Card allow viewing full HD movies with nvidia binary driver

And, it's a passive card, so enjoy the silence.


It's my card before i buy the quadro 600 (for better opengl support)

[DanL]

Thanks to VDPAU sets C, this Card allows viewing full HD movies with nvidia binary driver, and it's a passive card, so enjoy the silence.

What card are you talking about?

[letocha]

What card are you talking about?

nvidia geforce 210 (as mentionned in the title of the post)

[grege]

I agree with letocha.

It is hard to go past an Nvidia G210 for general purpose Linux work. I have three and all are Gainward GeForce 210 with 512mb. I paid a measly $40 each for the cards. They are passively cooled thus absolutely silent. If you run 32bit they also support hardware flash acceleration with the Nvidia driver. The Nvidia driver also supports power saving functions. I have a Mini-ITX motherboard with an Intel i3 2120, 8GB DDR3, the G210, an Antec 80Plus certified power supply and a WD Green 2Tb HDD. For 98% of the time the whole box only pulls 44w. The power draw is the same using the onboard Intel Graphics HD2000 so the Nvidia board is very efficient.

And the G210 runs Gnome3 without any issues.

The G210 suits my purpose perfectly and is definitely worth consideration.