Just ordered an older desktop. Now I need to add a video card, the cheapest possible.

This will be a Linux machine, prolly Ubuntu 64-bit. Only intended uses are (a) to watch movies on an HDMI-only TV, and (b) to play around with CUDA... No games, and no serious number crunching.

So far the cheapest thing I could find is a $25 nvidia Geforce 405 ( LINK)... but my search parameters were too narrow. And I'm not even sure if this card will fit in my machine.

I'm especially confused by the slot situation... bc the store website and the manufacturer site don't say exactly the same thing. Plus, even if I get that down, I'm not sure how to query newegg to include older cards that are still compatible.

Slot

Store website says, verbatim:

* 1 PCI1 PCI Express x16

BUT, the manufacturer site says, verbatim:

* One half-length, full-height, PCI Express x16
* One half-length, full-height, PCI Express x1
* Two full-length, full-height, 32-bit PCI 2.3 (5v)

Other specs

Form... Tower 4x5 ("small form factor")
Chipset...Intel Q45 and Intel ICH10DO
Motherboard... ???
CPU... Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3GHz
RAM... 3 GB of DDR3 SDRAM
Power... 280 Watt

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Posted by ILikeLSUToo

Central, LA

Member since Jan 2008

18018 posts

Posted on 5/15/15 at 8:33 pm to macrometer

quote:
* One half-length, full-height, PCI Express x16

Easy to find. Get this one: LINK

The geforce 405 will fit, but this one's a bit better.

This post was edited on 5/15/15 at 8:34 pm

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Posted by macrometer

Member since Aug 2013

35 posts

Posted on 5/15/15 at 9:47 pm to ILikeLSUToo

Thanks, bro.

But looking at the Radeon HD 5450, it says it's PCIe 2.1 x16. My slot, I think, is a PCIe "1.0". Would there be a performance hit since the gpu has to be backwards compatible?

Also, do Radeon cards play well with Linux these days? Last time I paid attention (a few years ago), it seemed like nvidia was way ahead.

And are you also recommending that I go with OpenCL over CUDA?

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Posted by ILikeLSUToo

Central, LA

Member since Jan 2008

18018 posts

Posted on 5/15/15 at 10:13 pm to macrometer

All of that might matter if you weren't just using it to watch movies. I'm assuming you are getting it merely because the PC lacks onboard HDMI out. Either card would be fine. I just found the AMD to be same price (after rebate) and a better GPU and more vRAM (and no, the lower available bandwidth of the 1.0 slot is not an issue for these low-end cards), but it really doesn't matter. If the rebate sounds like too much of a hassle, get the Nvidia.

This post was edited on 5/15/15 at 10:16 pm

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Posted by Layabout

Baton Rouge

Member since Jul 2011

11082 posts

Posted on 5/16/15 at 9:59 am to macrometer

I needed to add a video card to an older Dell in order to run Windows 7. The ATI Radeon 600 is a basic card with DVI out and works just fine. There are a ton of them available on e-bay for less than ten bucks with free shipping.

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