Author Topic: Need help choosing a Graphic Card  (Read 3586 times)

ModSpyder

  • Making baby steps
  • Posts: 3
    • View Profile
Need help choosing a Graphic Card
« on: July 08, 2012, 04:48:12 am »
Hey all,

I am brand new to Linuxmce and am excited to try it out. I am currently getting ready to build a core/hybrid (currently thinking about using the 8.10 build). I plan on using:

ASUS M4A87TD EVO AM3 for motherboard
AMD Athlon II X4 645 Propus 3.1GHz CPU
ASUS NX1101 Gigabit Network Adapter

I am having trouble finding a Graphics card that seems to work (preferably oob), and all the ones I find in the wiki don't seem to be available anywhere to buy, anymore. I am hoping someone could give me suggestion on what currently available graphics card I could use.

Thanks in advance.

l3mce

  • NEEDS to work for LinuxMCE
  • ***
  • Posts: 1084
    • View Profile
Re: Need help choosing a Graphic Card
« Reply #1 on: July 08, 2012, 07:08:42 am »
Hi. Welcome.

On 1004, almost anything will work now. How WELL it works (h.264 stuff on ui2 with compositing for instance) is where the rubber meets the road.

If I were you... I would see how the onboard works... and if that doesn't suffice... most any nvidia card will do (ok, not something you found in a box from 2002). Some of the latest and greatest nvidia can pose some issues because I am using an experimental driver for a handful of chipsets, and there just aren't enough floating around our little community to work out the finer kinks.

It is hard to answer your question really. Until recently really the ONLY thing that worked well was a bunch of nVidia chipsets. Now... MOST GPUs work well... and they haven't been utilized long enough for people to add to the wiki. MOST people using the system are doing so on known working stuff. I have UI2 alpha running on everything but this little integrated VIA. In the case of one of my ATIs I have to turn off the screensaver for flawless playback. This makes ATI my third choice based on the 3 pieces of equipment I can get my hands/eyes on. nVidia is now my second choice... and Intel is kicking ass and taking names... outside of some sandy bridge stuff.

I recommend doing a 1004 dvd install. It is faster, lighter, less error prone, and MD functionality is embedded. You don't need to run/do anything, just follow the networking requirements, and plug something in. 1004 supports a MUCH wider array of hardware, and is very stable at this point.
« Last Edit: July 08, 2012, 07:23:57 am by l3mce »
I never quit... I just ping out.

ModSpyder

  • Making baby steps
  • Posts: 3
    • View Profile
Re: Need help choosing a Graphic Card
« Reply #2 on: July 08, 2012, 08:17:25 am »
Fantastic to know. I don't believe this MOBO has an onboard GPU (at least that's what the specs state) but if what you said is true about 1004, I may try a completely different configuration. I was only going to use this MOBO and processor because it was the only one I could find still currently being sold that was in a User Set-up (thank you Phenigma). I think I would prefer to use Intel, especially since they seem to be leading this arms race these past couple of years.

I guess my next question would be, do you think it necessary for me to go so far as get a SandyBridge (for some notion of "future proofing") or would a more modest CPU be more than sufficient?

Again, I appreciate any help.

EDIT: Sorry, I just reread l3mce and saw your comment on Sandy Bridge. Do you have a recommendation for Intel? Or am I fairly safe with experimenting with most anything (that's what I am inferring from your last post, which would make me decidedly happy)
« Last Edit: July 08, 2012, 08:20:07 am by ModSpyder »

ModSpyder

  • Making baby steps
  • Posts: 3
    • View Profile
Re: Need help choosing a Graphic Card
« Reply #3 on: July 08, 2012, 06:32:58 pm »
i had one more question, is video decoding still done by the CPU or has the GPU taken on that load?

tschak909

  • LinuxMCE God
  • ****
  • Posts: 5549
  • DOES work for LinuxMCE.
    • View Profile
Re: Need help choosing a Graphic Card
« Reply #4 on: July 09, 2012, 05:49:37 am »
VDPAU decoding is available, and can be used by setting vdpau under the Video Accelleration field for a media director in the web admin. This of course implies that you would be using an NVIDIA card.

-Thom

l3mce

  • NEEDS to work for LinuxMCE
  • ***
  • Posts: 1084
    • View Profile
Re: Need help choosing a Graphic Card
« Reply #5 on: July 09, 2012, 08:02:32 am »
Fantastic to know. I don't believe this MOBO has an onboard GPU (at least that's what the specs state) but if what you said is true about 1004, I may try a completely different configuration. I was only going to use this MOBO and processor because it was the only one I could find still currently being sold that was in a User Set-up (thank you Phenigma). I think I would prefer to use Intel, especially since they seem to be leading this arms race these past couple of years.

I guess my next question would be, do you think it necessary for me to go so far as get a SandyBridge (for some notion of "future proofing") or would a more modest CPU be more than sufficient?

Again, I appreciate any help.

EDIT: Sorry, I just reread l3mce and saw your comment on Sandy Bridge. Do you have a recommendation for Intel? Or am I fairly safe with experimenting with most anything (that's what I am inferring from your last post, which would make me decidedly happy)

Yeah... sorry bout the onboard thing... usually that A on asus boards stands for ATI... N for nVidia... but you are correct, no onboard.
Pretty much anything outside of SB, and some SB stuff will go with work (with natty backports etc), but I don't recommend buying stuff to try and get it rolling because some just DON'T. I have UI2 alpha @1080p running brilliantly (for DVDs at least, I don't really have any real high def stuff) on a 2006 p4 optiplex GX620, a and a celeron m laptop, both with 512 in RAM. So... just do a lil better than that and you should do OK.
I never quit... I just ping out.