Robbat2 (robbat2) wrote,
2013-10-25 11:07:00

Looking for a new graphics card

So I'm hunting for a new graphics card, and my set of requirements make this a difficult quest. I welcome all suggestions, either as comments, or as email.

I haven't seen any passive cards in the new R7/R9 lines from ATI, not sure if those will come out later only

Requirements

  • MUST be supported by the open-source Radeon or Noveau drivers.
  • MUST support at least 3 digital displays (DVI/HDMI/DP etc, not VGA)
  • SHOULD be cost less than $300
  • SHOULD occupy only one PCI-e slot (trying to avoid double-height cards)
  • SHOULD be passively cooled, or after-market water-cooled
  • NICE TO HAVE: good 3D performance

Options so far (for further review)

Name & Link Outputs Passive Card height Price
ATI FirePro 2460 4x MiniDP Yes 1 slot $256 NCIX (no PP)
VISIONTEK Radeon HD 7750, 2GB GDDR5, PCIe x16, 6x Mini-DP, Retail 6x MiniDP No 1 slot $273 NCIX (no PP)
Radeon HD 7750 Low Profile - Eyefinity 4 CGAX-7758LM4 - PCI Express 3.0 - 2048 - GDDR5 - 128 BIT 4x MiniDP No 1 slot 136GBP AmazonUK, no NCIX listing
SAPPHIRE FleX 100322FLEX Radeon HD 6450 1GB 64-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready Low Profile Ready Video Card 1x DVI-D, 1x DVI-S, 1x HDMI Yes 2 slots LP $60 Newegg, $75 NCIX no-PP
PowerColor HD7750 2GB GDDR5 Eyefinity 4 LP Edition (UEFI) AX7750 2GBD5-4DL 4x MiniDP No 1 slot $190 Ebay, no NCIX listing
NVIDIA Quadro NVS 450 by PNY 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express Gen 2 x16 Quad DisplayPort or DVI-D SL Profesional Business Graphics Board, VCQ450NVS-X16-DVI-PB 4x MiniDP Yes 1 slot $295 AmazonUS, $495 NCIX non-PP
FirePro W600 6x MiniDp No 1 slot $570 NCIX non-PP, $480 AmazonUS
HIS 7750 iSilence 5 1GB GDDR5 PCI-E DP/DVI/HDMI DVI, HDMI, DP Yes 2 slot internally, 1 slot physically $100 AmazonUS

Notes

I have tried the following cards already without success:

  • Galaxy MDT X4 GeForce210
    This card implements 4 DVI in a design like a pair of inline Matrox DualHead2Go units, it mucked badly with the EDID and crashed Noveau.
  • Matrox ??? older 3 or 4-head card: only first output supported on open-source driver
  • Gigabyte Radeon HD 7970 OC Edition: radeon driver very buggy when DP used and other outputs

For reference, my monitors are 2x Dell U2410, 1x Dell U2413. So I have DVI/HDMI/DP on all displays, and the U2413 has DP1.2 MST as well.

Tags: gentoo, graphics, noveau, radeon
  • Post a new comment

    Error

    Anonymous comments are disabled in this journal

    switch
    default userpic

    Your reply will be screened

    Your IP address will be recorded  

    Help
  • 7 comments

fyrespritetryst

October 26 2013, 22:46:11 UTC 1 month ago

Boyfriend says:
"He's right with the requirements making it a bit difficult but it looks like he's on the right track.

I haven't yet used any AMD gpus yet, so I'm a little ignorant on their products. I dunno how well supported a nvidia card with nouveau is guna be, because I've run into some issues with my cards, their drivers, and fedora. But it all depends on what he's using it for. Is it for gaming, work, multimedia, etc. Linux, Mac or Win? Obviously he wants it to support 3 displays, is that because he's looking for stereoscopic 3D or to extend his desktop to multiple monitors, or run multiple instances of programs, or...? With height and cooling being an issue I'm assuming it's fitting into a small case. Is noise generation an issue and that's why he wants passive cooling?

Just going with what he posted I'd say he's doing a good job of finding what he needs and i dunno if i can really help"

robbat2

October 27 2013, 05:52:11 UTC 1 month ago

It's all for Linux multi-desktop, to increase my working area (I was on 2x Dell U2410, added more detail to the post about it). I'm trying to be fussier about the noise in my systems. I almost never run any serious 3D stuff, so I don't need power that way, and that lets me drop the power requirements. Airflow in the system is not concern; for the right card I'm willing to mod it to watercooling anyway. Distro-wise it's Gentoo, since I've been a developer for more than a decade; this post is more looking for less common hardware options I might have overlooked.

Alexandre Guimares

October 27 2013, 05:19:05 UTC 1 month ago

Not match with all of yours requeriments but maybe you want to take a look on FirePro W600.

Cheers.

robbat2

October 27 2013, 05:46:41 UTC 1 month ago

The FirePro 2460 is a closer match than the W600, but I did add it anyway.

Alexandre Guimares

October 28 2013, 03:52:07 UTC 4 weeks ago

The W600 does better 3D than Firepro 2460. Sapphire categorize the W600 as 3D card indeed and Firepro 2460 as 2D card.

abely

October 28 2013, 16:31:28 UTC 4 weeks ago

Not sure does it fit Your requirements or not, but Your may have a look at HIS 7750 iSilence 5 which is AMD Radeon HD7750 based, passive cooled, has DP, HDMI and DVI. It uses one slot on the back but seems to occupy 2 slots inside the case.
Not sure is it offered in USA but here, in Ukraine it costs about $100.

robbat2

October 28 2013, 17:54:45 UTC 4 weeks ago

Could be a contender, esp w/ a watercooling mod instead of that large heatsink. Would depend on the driver and internal phy design (I've seen some triple-output cards that only allow two of them at a time).