Any Linux d00ds here?

[courtesi96]

I prefer to use Ubuntu for all my gaming purposes and my P4 is not cutting it. I've got 1gb of RAM but the graphics are of the stale variety. I'd like to build the most modern Ubu box I can but am worried about compatibility with cutting edge graphics cards.

Can one steer me in the right direction?

[Sabz5150]

AMD has let loose of the ATI code for their vidcards... infact their latest video card shipped with Windows and Linux drivers. nVidia has fairly decent, albeit closed, driver support. Via's Unichrome (usually integrated into cheap boards) is fully supported, along with mpeg hardware decoding for those chips that support it.

Unless you have a way out there oddball card, you'll be fine.

[roushimsx]

You don't want a top of the line card, anyway. It's just not worth it (the price to performance ratio blows). Keep the budget under $300 on the high end for the graphics card (aim closer towards $200 than $300) and do a little review hunting to make sure that you're getting the best bang for your buck. An nVidia GTX260 will set you back under $250 and an ATI 4870 will run you a bit more, but it looks like both work without too many problems under Ubuntu.

[MrSparkle]

unless you want to do like professional 3d rendering you dont really need a top of the line graphics card in your Linux box. There aren't alot of games that run natively under 'nix, you can run them in wine or one of its derivatives but honestly the performance hits and tons of compatibility issues make it a bit of a pain in the ass. Id say pick up a card that WAS top of the line like a 9800 pro or something thatll dole out more than enough for most of your needs.

[ProgrammingAce]

Having run my desktop on linux for the last 10 years, i have to ask what on earth you plan on playing?

I guess there are some openGL based games with native support, but I'd be hard pressed to name any AAA titles from the last year.

Start with what you want to play, and we can recommend some specs.

EDIT: Although I just found out that neverwinter nights II runs fairly well under WINE. I might try to resurrect my characters after i blew away my windows partition...

[MrSparkle]

i thought nwn2 ran natively under linux or was that just the first game?

[courtesi96]

Having run my desktop on linux for the last 10 years, i have to ask what on earth you plan on playing?

Well I will make an attempt to play through Wine:

Dawn of War 2
Starcraft 2 (have NO idea if it will run but I'd like the specs to be up there)

Here are Linux Apps that I want to run at full speed:

Urban Terror (right now I have to turn off everything and it chugs at around 20fps)
World of Padman
True Combat Elite