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Thread: Vista GPU Recommendations

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    Vista GPU Recommendations

    I'm posting this from my first ever Windows Vista Install. The install went perfectly, apart from managing to eradicate my Kubuntu Linux bootloader... But still I figured the hassle of resurrecting my linux installation is a small price to pay for the simply indescribable joy that I seem to get from pushing my old school Dell Dimension to newer and farther heights, and indeed it would be except that I can't seem to get the Aero graphics I've been dreaming so much about to work.

    I had a niggling suspicion that this would be the case given my rather outdated nVidia Geforce MX 4000 card.

    But now to my quandry and the reason for posting this thread- what is the cheapest graphics card I can buy that will let me enjoy vista in all its Aero enhanced glory?

    I have a Dell Dimension 8200 with:
    Intel Pentium 4- 2.43GHz
    512MB RAM
    nVidia geForce MX 4000 (AGP)
    80 GB Maxtor IDE drive (with Vista on it)
    40 GB Maxtor IDE drive (with Linux on it)
    Turtle Beach Santa Cruz Sound Card (which isn't working in Vista- any help here would also be appreciated)

    So basically I need an AGP card (preferably with an nVidia GPU since they have more linux friendly drivers) as cheap as possible that will let me run Aero.

    Also can I run Aero on 512 mb RAM? I have another 512 mb lying about somewhere but haven't bothered searching it out.

    Also thought I should mention- my Windows Experience Score (whatever the hell that is) is 1.0

    Thanks in advance,
    Last edited by iftiq; 12-02-2007 at 05:15 AM. Reason: forgot to mention

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    what are you going to be doing mainly with that PC? + how much do you want to spend?
    Last edited by Nick Smith; 12-02-2007 at 07:54 AM.

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    i would recommend sticking in that extra 512mb ram and mybe go for a geforce 7600 like this one http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=479171
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    A AGP 6600GT will do fine for Vista.I did a test run on my old XP2800 computer and it coped fine for all the aero effects!

    Even a AGP 6200 should be fine in reality!!

    You can get a 6600GT AGP for 47 quid from Scan and the 6200 AGP costs around a 26 quid from them too!!

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    Based on the state of drivers atm I'd recommend an ATI card on that alone.. nVidia cards are a mess on Vista right now. We've bought in a whole array of cards of late (we're testing for our product which includes PC hardware) and are much happier on the ATI side of things.

    An old 9700 Pro would be fine (for example) - the only requirements are DirectX 9 compatibility.
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    Really??

    My Nvidia card worked fine!!

    Check this forum for screenshots:

    http://www.sudhian.com/index.php?/fo...wthread/96146/

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    On top of that Nvidia has FAR better Linux support than ATI cards. I am currently using an ATI card and it is more of pain to configure under various Linux distros than their Nvidia equivalents!!

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    nVidia Vista drivers are nothing short of useless.

    It's official 'cause I said it

    Give AMD/ATI 100% credit where it's due: their drivers are excellent for Vista
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    Quote Originally Posted by hexah
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    ???????

    All I know that with the latest Nvidia drivers and a relatively old computer I was up and running Vista within an hour with hardly any major issues!! Vista had no problem identifying the card properly and the 100 series drivers installed without any issues!! I even had a go on Tombraider Legend while I was in Vista! Worked fine! Aero worked OK also.

    My new computer has a X1900GT and that worked fine under Vista too!!

    So I do not know what you are going on about??!!

    Vista has worked fine on BOTH ATI and Nvidia cards for me. Perhaps you were using an old driver.The new drivers seem to work perfectly.

    Anyway the OP wants to run Linux and ATI sucks big time for Linux support.

    The only issue I have heard about Nvidia and Vista is the lack of a proper working driver for their DirectX 10 cards(a bit daft). However ATI have not even relased their ones yet and no game at the moment can make use of its features so it is a moot point!!
    Last edited by CAT-THE-FIFTH; 12-02-2007 at 11:30 PM.

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    not posting kempez's Avatar
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    Just use Google:
    http://www.google.co.uk/search?clien...=Google+Search

    Everyone is "going on about it"
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    Quote Originally Posted by hexah
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    Really? I suspect the OP is not a gamer and could care less about gaming performance really!! Since aero will even run on a 6200 fine I do not see what point you actually trying to make??
    Gaming under Vista with a Pentium 4 2,4ghz and 512mb RAM?? Jeez!! Get Real!!

    Considering that the OP wants to run Kubuntu a Nvidia card is DEFINITELY the best option. Configuriing ATI card under Linux is more of a pain then for Nvidia cards. I know enough programmers who use Nvidia cards for this very reason.

    The OP even uses a Nvidia card currently!!
    Last edited by CAT-THE-FIFTH; 12-02-2007 at 11:48 PM.

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    not posting kempez's Avatar
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    Aye I know nVidia are better for linux use. I was merely pointing out that nVidia's drivers are very poor for Vista, so it's much of a muchness as far as driver support is concerned
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    Quote Originally Posted by hexah
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    I'm not a gamer...just vain: I want the aero effects.

    Having said that though, it is true that the nVidia linux drivers are miles ahead of ATi, but I've got linux on my laptop which has an ATi mobility radeon gpu and on my old desktop which has an nVidia geForce and I've never noticed much difference in terms of setup, configuration etc. I suspect though that if I was to use a window manager other than KDE/Gnome (ie. Beryl) then there'd be trouble with the ATi drivers.

    I'm leaning towards the 26 quid nVidia 6200 from scan, just because that seems incredibly cheap for a GPU.

    Also a word of warning to anyone attempting a Vista/Linux dual boot, if you install vista after installing linux, it will demolish your bootloader and although there is allegedly a way to fix it, it never worked for me. The only solution I found was to reformat everything, reinstall vista and then reinstall linux...Clearly microsoft didn't teach their new baby to play nice with others.

    Now if only I could find that extra RAM....

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    Quote Originally Posted by kempez View Post
    nVidia Vista drivers are nothing short of useless.

    It's official 'cause I said it

    Give AMD/ATI 100% credit where it's due: their drivers are excellent for Vista
    I experienced the reverse, ATi drivers on RC2 = display distortions on vista, nvidia on RC2 = perfect.. Perhaps the problems people have been having is with bleeding edge equipment*, give it time, nVidia and ATi will both iron out the kinks, as someone mentioned earlier nVidia drivers on Linux work, ATi's don't, they just apear to be completely broke by design.

    * Disclaimer: This is an educated guess, as I never use bleeding edge hardware, I tend to always let the stoogies go ahead and buy the bleeding edge at premium prices with buggy software so I can go in 8-12 months, buy cheap and strongly supported, heh, some people will never learn. Only time I need to complain is when a product that's over a year old and still has buggy drivers, thus (mostly) warrented rants.
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    Quote Originally Posted by iftiq View Post
    Also a word of warning to anyone attempting a Vista/Linux dual boot, if you install vista after installing linux, it will demolish your bootloader and although there is allegedly a way to fix it, it never worked for me. The only solution I found was to reformat everything, reinstall vista and then reinstall linux...Clearly microsoft didn't teach their new baby to play nice with others.

    Now if only I could find that extra RAM....
    Nooo, windows has *always* done this, what you need to do after having to do a windows reinstall is boot your computer with a Linux livecd, mount your partitions and chroot, then do grub-install /dev/hdx, where 'x' is the partition letter of your boot drive. Assuming your distro uses grub, most do these days, the proceedure is mostly the same for lilo.
    Quote Originally Posted by Agent View Post
    ...every time Creative bring out a new card range their advertising makes it sound like they have discovered a way to insert a thousand Chuck Norris super dwarfs in your ears...

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    Quote Originally Posted by aidanjt View Post
    I experienced the reverse, ATi drivers on RC2 = display distortions on vista, nvidia on RC2 = perfect.. Perhaps the problems people have been having is with bleeding edge equipment*, give it time, nVidia and ATi will both iron out the kinks, as someone mentioned earlier nVidia drivers on Linux work, ATi's don't, they just apear to be completely broke by design.

    * Disclaimer: This is an educated guess, as I never use bleeding edge hardware, I tend to always let the stoogies go ahead and buy the bleeding edge at premium prices with buggy software so I can go in 8-12 months, buy cheap and strongly supported, heh, some people will never learn. Only time I need to complain is when a product that's over a year old and still has buggy drivers, thus (mostly) warrented rants.
    We're not testing bleeding edge cards here - the fact that the nVidia drivers are still in beta and the mass threats their getting from users should illustrate who's got it right now. I'm neither pro one or the other it's just that ATI got the drivers right far, far sooner and _released_ them too.
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