Best GPU for Ubuntu desktop ? (no gaming)

[altich88]

Hi all,

I'm hoping to turn my old Lynnfield machine into an Ubuntu development machine.

I will be removing the HD4890 and need a basic GPU for rendering 2 1080p monitors.

I've tried 3 different graphics cards with Ubuntu; HD4890, GTX260 and the integrated graphics of my work machine. Interestingly only the integrated graphics performed well without screen tearing, windows stuttering whilst dragging etc.

Have things improved a bit since the 2 old dedicated GPUs I tried? If so what would people recommend? I'd like something completely silent/passive.

Ta.

 

[altich88]

For the dedi cards did you use the binary (proprietary) drivers or the open source ones? ... I switched to an R9 380 recently and the AMD binary drivers work perfectly for me.

I tried both for both cards but wasn't really satisfied with either. For the AMD card the open source drivers seemed better, but spun up the fan quite a lot.

That's encouraging to hear, I really don't want to have to buy a new mobo and CPU just to get an integrated chip!

I'm thinking of trying something like this:

MSI GeForce N210 SILENT 1024MB GDDR3 "Low Profile" PCI-Express Graphics Card

 

[altich88]

The gtx260 should work fine, you have to fix the tearing issues manually.
I posted a fix for it here
EDIT: Reread your post properly and it seems that the 260 was a long time ago and no longer available?
Even so, you may still need to apply the fix I posted above with any nvidia card after the 8800.

I've still got it, so I'll give your fix a try and see if it's any better - thanks.