Small Video Card Update

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MindoverMaster

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I need a new video card on my Linux rig. (see sig)

Right now I have a 8800GTS 380MB in there. One, it's not playing kindly with Linux. Two, I just don't need that much of a powerhouse, IMO. (Though I'm sure any card I get will be more powerful than it?) Only game I play is Minecraft these days, anyway. And that's on Ubuntu.

Would it be OK to get a a 430/440? If not too expensive on newegg or tigerdirect. Maybe eBay?
 
Note to have a 128 bit vga card or 256bit is better and better .. GT440 with 64bit and 2G Rams is tooooooo bad but 9500 GT 128Bit 1Gb is much faster and cheaper ..

:)
 
You didn't test the GT440 or GT520 2G Ram 64Bit ... it is bad .. too bad .. agly .. and not a vga card ..

You have I5 proccesor .. and this will make much differance with you .. if it is 64Bit don't waste your money on it .

A 64-bit bus is sub-par and crippling to any kind of performance. Even
the original Riva 128 (NVIDIA's first successful graphics accelerator)
had a 128-bit bus. The thing it hurts most if bandwidth and texture
uploads. Your card needs to communicate to the CPU over the AGP/PCIE
bus quite a bit, having a one way (64-bit) bus means it has to wait to
read/write or split the bus even more into two 32-bit channels for
bidirectional.

64-bit buses are generally used on very low-end or OEM system
components. These are the sub 90.00 cards or the overpriced value cards
sold at retail outlets like Best Buy.

Memory bandwidth is greatly affected by bus size/speed; in order to
compensate for a weak bus you need to use faster RAM (GDDR2/3) or pump
up some of the clock speeds, but even then you're usually dealing with a
low end card that's underclocked if anything and using sub-par RAM chips
with slow timings.

A lesser example can be seen with the 6600GT. It had a 128-bit bus
compared to the 6800's 256-bit. In order to compensate, it uses GDDR3
RAM and fast clock speeds (500/1000 compared to 400/700). It's a good
card for it's price range, but even so the larger bandwidth of a 6800/GS
will handily beat it.

:)
 
That is talking about 4 to 5 gen old cards and older. The 440 chip is much faster than the 9600GT thus compensating for a slower bus and it will have faster RAM.

Don't forget the one major point being missed here, and that is the fact that he is only going to be playing Minecraft and on Linux. It wont make much of a difference so why waste money on older junk. I have owned an 8800GS, 9600GSO, and 9600GT. I can guarantee a 440 is going to be faster.

Not only that, but no 440 card is 64bit. The OEM card is 192bit, and the consumer is 128bit memory bus.

Edit: Looks like the 2GB is 64bit, but really no point in getting the 2GB when the 1GB is going to be faster.

Edit2: I would go for this one. Has the most promise.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500191
 
that's what I want to say .. you have expressed it :p
really no point in getting the 2GB when the 1GB is going to be faster.

I have 9500GT 1G 128Bit .. and played GTA IV on XP sp3 .. it was fine and fast .. no hangs .. I bought GT440 2G 64Bit for this game and it was too slow .. Didn't work even in 600×800 .. just a slow motion game .. So I returned it in the same day . that's when I discoverd the differances between 64/128/256Bit cards .:D

So if there is no looking for gaming a 440 is good if it is 1Gb .. but 440 2Gb 64Bit is pointless :p

:)
 
that's what I want to say .. you have expressed it :p


I have 9500GT 1G 128Bit .. and played GTA IV on XP sp3 .. it was fine and fast .. no hangs .. I bought GT440 2G 64Bit for this game and it was too slow .. Didn't work even in 600×800 .. just a slow motion game .. So I returned it in the same day . that's when I discoverd the differances between 64/128/256Bit cards .:D

So if there is no looking for gaming a 440 is good if it is 1Gb .. but 440 2Gb 64Bit is pointless :p

:)
Actually, you happened to leave your opinion based on a terrible game for a few reasons.
Firstly, GTA4 is a poorly coded game that hogs way too many resources.
Second, I couldn't imagine playing that game on either of those cards. I didn't even want to play it on a GTX 465.
Thirdly, GTA4 uses ALL VRAM available if you up the settings. The problem could have been that the game saw 2GB and until it got to a certain point didn't turn those numbers red. When in all reality you shouldn't have even gone above 512MB VRAM usage with the settings.

I'm sure the 2GB would be fine playing other games that don't hog all of the VRAM. Just GTA4 is a total catch 22 on the subject.

For instance, my GTX 465 has 1GB and the numbers would be in the green until I got to about 950MB yet would lag because the GPU itself wasn't fast enough to process the textures being loaded to VRAM. Yet, I can max the game with my GTX580 and still have room to spare even though it is barely using more than my previous attempt at playing the game. (Just did this today actually).
That is why I'm saying the 512MB Zotac would be better, because it doesn't have too much VRAM to load up, and it is faster GDDR5.
 
Oh .. that's too much info for me .
There are too many considerations for the VGA cards !
I've been working with computers since 1998 .. In 2004 I got my hands on 16M 3dFx voodoo 3 card .. it was an old 2X AGP card and was like heaven for me (The first time to see a 16M card faster than 64M one) ..

I have to read more about this .. Till now I've tested too many cards on the same computer and I did not go far in comparing cards to reach the GPU speed comparing :p
I have to say thank you PP Mguire
:)
 
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