I'm going to build a gaming pc with a following specs. I would really need some help choosing the right GPU for my build (propably AMD because better compatibility with linux). Pricerange is between 100 and 150 euros (about the same in dollars). It would be also really nice if somebody could say something about compatibility concerning my whole rig (linux compatibility, xp compatibility isn't problem???)
CPU: i3, 3220
Mobo: MSI B75MA-P45
PSU: corsair CX430M
HDD: Western digital caviar blue 500gb
Memory: G.Skill Sniper low voltage (from MSI's website, granted compatibility?)
asus DVD-drive, fractal design define R4
This is also my first build so any comments are welcome
OS installations shouldn't be a problem http://teksyndicate.com/forum/linux/winlinux-dual-boot-2-hard-drives/131991
WHAT VERSION OF LINUX! gah! Ubuntu linux and all spinoffs (zorin) are pretty much fully compatible with hardware. I have a gtx 660 works perfect all i had to do was let the os update. I would recommend you avoid amd at all costs due to their frametimes. If you want more info look on youtube for framerating.
also avoid winxp 64 bit it has incompats with drivers and stuff (figure you knew that)
also WWW.PCPARTPICKER.COM is your fucking friend. it makes it so much easier for us when we have a universal format.
Also what is your budget for your ENTIRE build? We may be able to suggest better. I use $ not however i do the other symbol. euros or w/e. europe money.
GNU/Linux probably works better with Intel/nVidia for the moment. AMD is trying to catch up, but they're not there yet. AMD CPU's are perfectly fine in GNU/Linux, they actually perform better in GNU/Linux than in Windoze because Linux is much better scalable and doesn ot include AMD sabotage code. However, AMD GPU's are difficult in GNU/Linux. The catalyst driver is NOT optimised for the 7000-series GPU's, AMD has stopped supporting everything before the 4000-series in the Catalyst, and the open source Gallium driver does not work with 7000-series GPU's, so that's pretty sad. The nVidia proprietary drivers work fine with all nVidia products, and are reasonably optimised, however, the open source nouveau drivers, although not bad, are not compatible with all nVidia products, and actually perform best with the 9800GT/GTX card, which is quite an old bugger, that will run all your games in GNU/Linux (including linux native games at often a higher framerate than the windows version on more modern graphics hardware), but it will not suffice for modern windows games because of the windows overhead.
So best combination at this time is Intel i7 CPU and nVidia 660ti and higher GPU with nVidia proprietary drivers. Ubuntu is quite the mess when it comes to graphics, it's certainly not advisable, it's better to take one of the major distros. If you're used to DEB-based distros, Debian is the obvious choice. If Steam gaming in Linux is your priority, definitely go for Manjaro Linux, Fedora or OpenSuSE, where Steam works without any problems, is preinstalled or can be one-click-installed, and runs at maximum performance.
So, my overall budget is 500-650 €. And it is not a problem to use 32-bit xp. I just thought it might be a problem to have 8gb of ram in 32-bit system, but that is ok?
And yes, I'm going to use linux for gaming on steam. Fedora or ubuntu is propably my choise but does it matter what spin I use (sorry, I'm quite new on linux)?
Frametime argument only applies to crossfire, not single GPUs, according to the actual source of the word "framerating", and what I assume you were directing the OP toward. Maybe read it and understand it before cutting half the market out of the equation.
As for GPUs on linux, these days, pretty much anything works. My 7870 had zero problems with the proprietary AMD drivers. I think Amnesia runs better for me on Linux than on Windows. No graphical glitches, slowdowns, or other anomalies that might make you remember you're not on Windows. The drivers were a simple install and worked without issue. That's on the latest version of Linux Mint. Can't really speak for anything else.
I think Nvidia's driver takes a bit more work to install (dropping out of the x server to the command line and such), but last I heard was months ago. Might be better now. I'm sure their support and performance is decent, at least. It has been for years.
Intel's drivers are the best of the lot, because they're fully open source and come right with the kernel, no extra installation needed. They're also sometimes faster than they are on Windows, depending on the hardware. But still not fast enough to replace a dedicated GPU.
So this is the build I was thinking: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Y3RZ
I didn't find the exact same DVD-drive, but there is the link to what is going to be really in my build: http://www.asus.com/Optical_Drives/DRW24B5ST/
GTX 660 would be nice but it costs 200€ (about. 260 dollars) in Finland.
There are several reasons why I chose this build, so I really don't need any suggestions to other parts than GPU (and maby mobo).
So, these are my available choises as GPU:
Gigabyte (on the list, is it overkill for the CPU?)
Asus GeForce GTX 650, 1gb gddr5: http://www.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/GTX650E1GD5/
I would be also very interented if they compatible with mobo, or should I chance it? List of tested GPU's seems to me quite outdated: http://www.msi.com/file/test_report/TR1_2548.pdf
You cant have 8gb memory in 32bit system, not going to work. System would detect 3,5gb.
If you just want to play games don't mess with linux, trust me. If you want to learn though, get yourself a raspberry pi, it's really cheap and its all you need.
With that CPU you gonna bottleneck GPU, and its will be noticeable. If I were you I would wait and save up some money and get kick-ass system with FX 8350 or Core i5 3570k and some nice GPU like Radeon 7850.
IMO your price range is a mess, because you can't really get a dedicated gpu (without cpu bottleneck) and at the same time with APU you still have some money to spend.
If you want to get dedicated gpu with that i3 i would say get yourself an amd 7850 or 7770(7790), if you dont need cuda its an overkill.
Okey, but would it be possible to have a system like this: WIn 7 (64-bit), for gaming and windows xp 32-bit as a secondary operating system for older games.
Specs: the same as previously, but Asus GTX 650 1gb gddr5 as a GPU
http://www.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/GTX650E1GD5/
I know that 32-bit operating system can't use more memory than 3,5 gb of memory, but my question would it work? It wolud be still nice to have more than 4gb of ram on the win 7.
if you think amd single gpu's don't have frame latency you're nuts do your research. 32 bit linux does use more than 4 gb ram but windows doesn't work that way thx microsoft. As for the rest of this thread I don't think that i have anything else to contribute at this point.
oh yeah you linked to an article i saw when it was first created yay i blew it off then and now because it's wrong. look for pcper at least i said 'go look at this guy that isn't me.' sure they may not be as bad as crossfire but because of the crossfire results it's not recommended. at all. as long as amd's crossfire frametimes are as bad as they are i don't care if it's crossfire or not i will not recommend amd until they get there shit together.
The article I linked to got its data directly from pcper. The images are from one of pcper's articles with "Frame Rating" right in the name. If pcper is your source, you seem to have misread both what they said and the numbers they came up with.
For single GPUs, there is absolutely no detectable difference in smoothness. Telling people not to buy anything AMD because the crossfire frame latencies might be problematic (there is disagreement there, believe it or not) is blatant fanboyism and isn't helpful to anyone.
Both AMD and Nvidia cards will work in Linux. Some versions of prebuild linux has the driver for Nvidia native. If the one you want doesnt then you would install the driver by running, as root, sh ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86-319.17.run . You really don't need windows to run any games on linux. You could just use wine. If you insist on a dual boot then I wouldn't bother with XP since Windows XP SP3 will no longer be supported as of April 8, 2014. Just get 7 or 8 if you want Windows no need to bother setting up a system that wont matter (like it does now) in a year.