Recommended video card

[cyberdyne2]

Hi,
Could you more knowledgeable people please advise me what video card to buy which will be fully compatible - and easy to install - for my Linux setup please? I have a Compaq Evo D310 system with an Intel chipset, using Fedora 11 which won't display photos or video (other than images via Firefox - video still doesn't play) so I think I may as well just get a card.

Any suggestions appreciated. I'm in the UK if that makes a difference.
Thank you

[Dangermouse]

Hi,
personally i always use Nvidia, the drivers are pretty good, Ati is not so good with drivers in linux, but just having a quick look at your previous thread, how much memory has your present graphics card got/using.

[cyberdyne2]

Hi,
My current system has no card, only onboard graphics.

[Dangermouse]

My current system has no card, only onboard graphics.

Yes what is the memory allocated to it in the bios?

[cyberdyne2]

Sorry, I misunderstood your question. Apologies for my ignorance but is there a way of telling that without rebooting and checking in the BIOS itself?

[cyberdyne2]

Just rebooted and there's very little info in my BIOS although it does say AGP Aperture Size - 64MB with the ability to increase it to 256MB.
(I changed that setting to its max of 256mb and it made no difference).

[Dangermouse]

To find memory of your graphics

su
lspci

now you will have a out roughly like this

[root@localhost ~]# lspci
00:00.0 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation MCP61 LPC Bridge (rev a1)
00:01.0 ISA bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP61 LPC Bridge (rev a2)
00:01.1 SMBus: nVidia Corporation MCP61 SMBus (rev a2)
00:01.2 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation MCP61 Memory Controller (rev a2)
00:02.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP61 USB Controller (rev a3)
00:02.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP61 USB Controller (rev a3)
00:04.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP61 PCI bridge (rev a1)
00:05.0 Audio device: nVidia Corporation MCP61 High Definition Audio (rev a2)
00:06.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation MCP61 IDE (rev a2)
00:07.0 Bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP61 Ethernet (rev a2)
00:08.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation MCP61 SATA Controller (rev a2)
00:08.1 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation MCP61 SATA Controller (rev a2)
00:09.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP61 PCI Express bridge (rev a2)
00:0b.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP61 PCI Express bridge (rev a2)
00:0c.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP61 PCI Express bridge (rev a2)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
01:08.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. Atheros AR5001X+ Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01)
02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GeForce 8500 GT (rev a1)

my card is the one in red (vga) yours will be different then type

lspci -v -s 02:00.0

and you will get something like

[root@localhost ~]# lspci -v -s 02:00.0
02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GeForce 8500 GT (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 19
Memory at fb000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
Memory at c0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=512M]
Memory at f8000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=32M]
I/O ports at ec00 [size=128]
[virtual] Expansion ROM at fafe0000 [disabled] [size=128K]
Capabilities: [60] Power Management version 2
Capabilities: [68] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
Capabilities: [78] Express Endpoint, MSI 00
Capabilities: [100] Virtual Channel <?>
Capabilities: [128] Power Budgeting <?>
Capabilities: [600] Vendor Specific Information <?>
Kernel driver in use: nvidia
Kernel modules: nvidia, nouveau, nvidiafb

[cyberdyne2]

Thanks again, here is the output:

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE Chipset Integrated Graphics Device (rev 01) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
Subsystem: Compaq Computer Corporation Device 00c5
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
Memory at f0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
Memory at f8400000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512K]
Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled]
Capabilities: [d0] Power Management version 1
Kernel driver in use: i915
Kernel modules: i915

[Dangermouse]

Looks like it has enough memory, though it does give me the impression of a memory problem

One thing to consider when buying a graphics card is, when i got mine i found it cheaper to get a pci express card and new board, instead of a agp card as they seem to be getting rare and more expensive nowadays.

Dave

[cyberdyne2]

OK, thanks very much for your help and advice.

(I'll be careful not to hit you when I post my weekend letters later!!)

By the way, I found your autoten utility very hand, thank you.

[cyberdyne2]

Cheap and cheerful NVidia card on its way. Fingers crossed it solves my graphics problems.
Thanks for your help.

[cyberdyne2]

One question, should three onboard devices be using the same IRQ?
I see in the BIOS that the USB, audio and VGA are all on IRQ10.
Thanks

[Firewing1]

If you're not having any problems USB/audio/VGA, I wouldn't worry too much about it. Manually setting IRQs is more or less a thing of the past, as the BIOS defaults work pretty well now...

[cyberdyne2]

Originally Posted by Firewing1

If you're not having any problems USB/audio/VGA, I wouldn't worry too much about it. Manually setting IRQs is more or less a thing of the past, as the BIOS defaults work pretty well now...

OK, thank you.
I'm still having problems with this Intel chipset/ graphics so fingers crossed my new card solves it.

[cyberdyne2]

Update:

New nVidia 6200 card installed prior to reinstallation of F11 and appears to be working well.

Thanks for all your help everyone.