[GLLUG] New Video Card Advice

[Jeremy Bowers]

C. Ulrich wrote:
> Even if Linux doesn't support 8X (not sure if it does or not), it will
> automatically scale back to 4X and be usuable, just maybe not *quite* as
> fast.

Actually, come to think of it, since he's "not playing games", a good 
ole' fashioned PCI interface would be fast enough.

If you're not trying to shovel large quantities of high-resolution 
textures down the bus several tens of times per second (i.e., 3d 
gaming), you don't need the higher speed buses, and in fact from my own 
experience I'd say go ahead and *actively* turn down the AGP speed in 
your BIOS. Unless you crank it up and see a difference and thereby see 
at least one positive to keeping it at the high speed, it can only cause 
you trouble; I've never owned a motherboard that could actually do the 
fastest AGP speed it claimed it could do *reliably*.

I wouldn't worry about bus speed in this scenario. In fact, short of 
multi-monitor support if desired, I don't see any reason to buy anything 
but the cheapest graphics card you can find that is compatible with 
Linux. Even my crappy little TNT2 can keep up with any 2D application my 
computer can manage to throw at it. 8MB of RAM is about twice as much as 
it needs to run any feasible resolution at 32-bit color.