So my Samsung LCD monitor gave up the ghost (less than a couple years old, I think), and I went out to Frys to get a new replacement. I was looking at the displays and some of them looked like crap (blurry letters). I asked the salesman, and he said that they were being fed with VGA analog, whereas the sharp ones were digital (DVI or HDMI). If I were the manufacturers of those monitors, I’d be pretty unhappy with that situation, but I digress.
Anyway, I determined to not only get a replacement monitor, but to upgrade my video card as well to digital output. So I bought a new LG 21.5″ screen, and an MSI card with an NVidia N220GT engine, and a gig of DDR2 memory.
I got home, put in the card, and it turned out not to work without having to update Linux drivers from NVidia. But in changing it out, I also noticed that the old card (also an NVidia, with 128M of memory) had a DVI output, so I didn’t really need the new one in terms of digital output support. So I’m running with it now.
Question: I’m not a gamer, and don’t do anything really graphics intensive, such as video processing. Is there any point in updating drivers and reinstalling it, or should I just take it back and get my sixty bucks back? Will I see any performance improvement from it?
[Monday morning update]
Thanks for all the input in comments. I don’t need any of the things that y’all say the card will help with, so I’ll be taking it back. If I ever do need it, I’ll get a better one, cheaper, at that time.
Rand,
unless you’re looking for almost TV quality video over Mr. Gore’s interweb or your going to start gaming, go get your $60 back.
I’m no expert in linux, but 128MB will drive the 1080 resolution. You got a good deal on a new generation video card, so that’s not the problem. But if you are running fine with the new monitor on the old card; then get your money back.
Considering I’ve never been able to return anything at Fry’s in less than three hours, I’d just keep it…..
My return wait at Fry’s is typically ten to fifteen minutes.
Depends. Do not know what is your computer configuration or your old card model.
The things your new card (which has CUDA and DirectCompute support) could help with would be H.264 AVC video decoding, encoding. e.g. Adobe is adding support for GPU assisted H.264 decoding in Flash 10.1 for Windows (doubt they will do it for Linux any time soon). Youtube uses H.264.
If you want to check if your card can assist video decoding on Linux via VDPAU you can consult this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VDPAU
There is also some limited CUDA support in certain compute intensive apps, which may not necessarily be graphics applications. Some scientific apps for example enable offloading some computations to CUDA graphics boards. However in a low end graphics board it may be slower to offload the computations to the graphics card rather than doing it in the CPU to begin it.
The card would also help speed up 3D Compiz desktop or gaming.
In short you can live without it. Depends on how much you want those 60 bucks.
Do you run any CAD programs (UG, ProE, Catia), and does the old card handle them adequately? If so, get your money back…
Do you run any CAD programs (UG, ProE, Catia)
No. If I ever do, I’ll worry about a new card then.
The only need for 1 Gig of video memory is gaming, get your money back.
I agree. Unless top quality video streaming or graphics performance for gaming / CAD is important, the old card will do fine.
One thing to consider, though, is if the new card has two DVI outputs, that will make running dual monitors easy. That’s something to give some serious consideration. However, once you go dual, you’ll never go back.
Yeah, get your money back.
Now generally it’s been my experience that you only NEED a digital output to feed large monitors. a 17″ 1280×1024 will run OK with a VGA output. a 1600×1200 or 1680×1050, etc., with a larger resolution, does better with the digitial connection.
Short answer: if the old card works, keep it.
Long answer: you might want the new card if you need HD video decompression or high-resolution, high-quality 3D at reasonable framerates. There’s also a whole set of religious issues around drivers (Nvidia’s drivers are closed-source, but generally regarded as good) which you probably would as well avoid; the Intel integrated graphics are actually your best bet for Linux if you don’t need high-performance IMO.