Best Value NVIDIA Card for UI2

[Prindle19]

Ok, what is the best value NVIDIA card for LinuxMCE that will unquestionably support UI2?

I see reference to 6xxx and 7xxx series cards but nothing too definite.

I know some will say "6xxx" is fine - ok, but does that mean the 7xxx series is overkill...or does it actually make an improvement?

I don't want to play games, just watch HDTV / DVD content.

I currently have an ATI 9600 64MB card .... no UI2 of course.

How about this card?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130076

I have to keep it AGP.

My Sony HDTV is currently connected to my windows based (Meedio / Beyond TV with PVR 250 and an ATI HDTV Wonder) via VGA - don't really need all the fancy component / DVI stuff.

Thanks.

[nite_man]

I use  ASUS EN6200LE for PCIExpress. It works fine with UI2 and HDTV. The same model exists for AGP as well -  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121019

I didn't test any 7XXX with UI2. So, I cannot recommend it to you.

[atreidae]

I had the same problem you did, couldnt justify the motherboard upgrade for the pci-e card.

anything in the gefore series starting with 6 has the calls required to get everything working. infact im using the onboard 6150 that comes with the asus motherboard in the video.. the motherboard cost the same as the graphics cards i was looking at, add in another 50 bux for a dual core cpu, and recycle everything else.

my machine is now running quite well. just got to find a nice dvb-t card that works with it.

[Shamus]

I've been using an AGP FX5200 for 18 months with MythTV. Been running LinuxMCE happily with UI2 for about a week. People tend to love this card for MythTV because you can get models without a fan so it will help your media centre run quieter is that's important to you. There's plenty of AGP models about too. Alternatively a 7300GS could be a low-cost option and keep UI3 an option too.

[1audio]

I have read somewhere that the video acceleration in the 5XXX series cards is better than the later cards. And I have seen claims to the contrary. I have used all three and they all work roughly equally (i.e. OK for the most part but not Videophile quality.) And in my less than formal testing the Windows drivers don't work much better. Just be sure you have at least 128 MB of ram on the card. Don't waste time on the 8800 series since Nvidia support for Linux on those left out video acceleration.

[jayzee]

I have just bought a

NVIDIA GeForce 6200 256MB AGP

 in the UK which cost me £25 which i think is pretty good going.
I have managed to get it working with ui2 which so far seems fine, still configuring it all though and i need to sort out if the svideo tv out on the card is working right - should it work out of the box or will I need to configure it?

J

[Hagen]

You'll have to get the proprietary drivers from Nvidia, they are automatically installed if the card is in the box when installing LMCE though (if you haven't allready).
I use a 128MB GF6200, and it works fine

[CrafyZA]

I'm running the the Nvidia 6600GT and UI2. Works like a dream. Only issue I had was after I installed kubuntu and selected the option to update the nvidia drivers I was limmited to 640x480. But then after lmce installed i had all the options available to me. i think during the install it updates the kernal, and then the drivers works. before that i saw something in one of the log files that stated about the driver does not support my kernel version. But all fixed now. the 6600 GT is also very cost effective. I paid about R1200 for mine when they just came out and was the latest and greatest. divide that by 7 to get a rough idea of what it is in $
they will be cheaper now.