Best video card with native drivers?

[Alex]

Hi,
I have about $300 to spend on a new video controller for my desktop.
I'm using f33 with Xwayland and GNOME. I currently have two 27"
monitors and plan to get a third 32" 4K in the coming months. I have
an i7-8700 3.2Ghz on an Asus PRIME Z370-A with 64GB.
https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards-Components/Motherboards/All-series/PRIM...

I use my desktop for basic photo editing, playing videos, and basic
office/browser work. What recommendations do you have? Here's my
requirements:

- native open source drivers
- supports at least three monitors
- PCIe x16
- support for 4K
- HDMI output
- audio not necessary

What other specs should I consider? I currently have an old Radeon
HD-5770 but I'm starting to find playing video within a browser is
less than fluid.

$ lspci -k | grep -A 2 -E "(VGA|3D)"
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
[AMD/ATI] Juniper XT [Radeon HD 5770]
        Subsystem: PC Partner Limited / Sapphire Technology Device e147
        Kernel driver in use: radeon

Thanks,
Alex

[Richard Shaw]

On Sun, Mar 7, 2021 at 8:15 AM Alex  wrote:
> Hi,
> I have about $300 to spend on a new video controller for my desktop.
> I'm using f33 with Xwayland and GNOME. I currently have two 27"
> monitors and plan to get a third 32" 4K in the coming months. I have
> an i7-8700 3.2Ghz on an Asus PRIME Z370-A with 64GB.
>
> https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards-Components/Motherboards/All-series/PRIM...

With the caveat that right now is a TERRIBLE time to buy a video card...

I'm very happy with my AMD RX 580 8GB but I don't mind buying previous
generation hardware. I got it before the mining boom for $145 new, now
they're almost $400 if you can find them.

If you're not doing any gaming then a 560/570 would work as well.

Thanks,
Richard

[Tom Horsley]

In my experience the only reliable open source drivers are the
ones for Intel, and Intel doesn't make a stand alone video
card, just on board video for Intel motherboards.

For several releases now I've given the nouveau drivers a chance
on each new fedora install, and within a week (usually within
two hours) I've had the desktop freeze up hard, so I install the
rpmfusion binary nvidia drivers and never have any more trouble.

[Alex]

Hi,
> > I have about $300 to spend on a new video controller for my desktop.
> > I'm using f33 with Xwayland and GNOME. I currently have two 27"
> > monitors and plan to get a third 32" 4K in the coming months. I have
> > an i7-8700 3.2Ghz on an Asus PRIME Z370-A with 64GB.
> > https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards-Components/Motherboards/All-series/PRIM...
>
> With the caveat that right now is a TERRIBLE time to buy a video card...

Do you mean because of manufacturing problems, or some other reason?
Is it all about cryptomining?

I'll check out the 580, but some of them are in the $800 range!

[Alex]

Hi,
> In my experience the only reliable open source drivers are the
> ones for Intel, and Intel doesn't make a stand alone video
> card, just on board video for Intel motherboards.
>
> For several releases now I've given the nouveau drivers a chance
> on each new fedora install, and within a week (usually within
> two hours) I've had the desktop freeze up hard, so I install the
> rpmfusion binary nvidia drivers and never have any more trouble.

Yeah, great point. I actually forgot about that - I'm using the radeon
driver, which I think is also from rpmfusion.

As long as it doesn't create the instability problems that it did years ago....

[Richard Shaw]

On Sun, Mar 7, 2021 at 8:54 AM Alex  wrote:
> Hi,
> > > I have about $300 to spend on a new video controller for my desktop.
> > > I'm using f33 with Xwayland and GNOME. I currently have two 27"
> > > monitors and plan to get a third 32" 4K in the coming months. I have
> > > an i7-8700 3.2Ghz on an Asus PRIME Z370-A with 64GB.
>
> https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards-Components/Motherboards/All-series/PRIM...
> > With the caveat that right now is a TERRIBLE time to buy a video card...
>
> Do you mean because of manufacturing problems, or some other reason?
> Is it all about cryptomining?

There's multiple issues, silicon shortage, more demand from staying at
home, and yes mining.

I've even seen used cards going for more than what I paid new. I can
occasionally find okay deals on Facebook Marketplace, then there's people
trying to sell ancient cards for $100...

Thanks,
Richard

[Richard Shaw]

On Sun, Mar 7, 2021 at 8:56 AM Alex  wrote:
> Hi,
> > In my experience the only reliable open source drivers are the
> > ones for Intel, and Intel doesn't make a stand alone video
> > card, just on board video for Intel motherboards.
> >
> > For several releases now I've given the nouveau drivers a chance
> > on each new fedora install, and within a week (usually within
> > two hours) I've had the desktop freeze up hard, so I install the
> > rpmfusion binary nvidia drivers and never have any more trouble.
>
> Yeah, great point. I actually forgot about that - I'm using the radeon
> driver, which I think is also from rpmfusion.

I had very few problems running akmods with Nvidia drivers from RPM Fusion,
but then again, I also was the maintainer for quite some time :) However,
you mentioned FOSS drivers so I didn't mention it. You shouldn't need the
radeon drivers with the newer AMD cards, which is why I mentioned the RX
5XX series, they run well out of the box. I only installed the amdgpu
drivers for OpenCL support.

If you can find the RX  4XX card they're nearly identical, the 5XX series
have a little higher clock speed.

Thanks,
Richard

[Joe Wulf]

Alex,
In order to support two monitors today, and the addition of a 3rd 4K monitor in the future----you'll need a video card which supports 3+ video ports and at least one of those ports must also support 4k output, i.e. 3840x2160 resolution, at a minimum.
I research/review products, especially all the details in the SPECS, at the manufacturers webpage, and that's usually after searching/comparing/contrasting similar products on sites like MicroCenter, NewEgg, Amazon, as well as the former FRYs Electronics.
The Radeon RX 560 Richard Shaw suggested, has 3 video-out ports (1xHDMI 2.0b; 1xDisplayPort 1.4; 1xDL-DVI-D) and supports resolutions up to 4096x2160 (check!).  Newegg has it for a price within your range.  I suggest reviewing the graphic card power supply requirements versus the rest of the equipment in your desktop (i.e. total up all the watt's consumed) and ensure your desktop power supply sufficiently exceeds that capacity.

I purchased a pair of 4K monitors early last year to use with my new desktop.  I choose the Samsung - UJ59.  Great 4k resolution at 32" in size, shop around for price as you should be able to secure one for $300-$400.
As for native open source drivers on Radeon equipment I cannot speak to that.  My preference is for something out of the nVidia family of products as their drivers for Linux (Fedora, Red Hat, Centos) have just worked whereever I've used them (at work and at home; physical systems and virtual).  One card to consider would be the GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1050 TI N105TOC; it is very close to within your price range, has 3 video ports like the Radeon RX 560 card and outputs resolution up to 7680 x4320.
Thank you.
R,-Joe Wulf

On Sunday, March 7, 2021, 9:15:04 AM EST, Alex  wrote:

Hi,
I have about $300 to spend on a new video controller for my desktop.
I'm using f33 with Xwayland and GNOME. I currently have two 27"
monitors and plan to get a third 32" 4K in the coming months. I have
an i7-8700 3.2Ghz on an Asus PRIME Z370-A with 64GB.
https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards-Components/Motherboards/All-series/PRIM...

I use my desktop for basic photo editing, playing videos, and basic
office/browser work. What recommendations do you have? Here's my
requirements:

- native open source drivers
- supports at least three monitors
- PCIe x16
- support for 4K
- HDMI output
- audio not necessary

What other specs should I consider? I currently have an old Radeon
HD-5770 but I'm starting to find playing video within a browser is
less than fluid.

$ lspci -k | grep -A 2 -E "(VGA|3D)"
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
[AMD/ATI] Juniper XT [Radeon HD 5770]
        Subsystem: PC Partner Limited / Sapphire Technology Device e147
        Kernel driver in use: radeon

Thanks,
Alex
_______________________________________________
users mailing list -- [e-mail]
To unsubscribe send an email to [e-mail]
Fedora Code of Conduct: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/code-of-conduct/
List Guidelines: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines
List Archives: https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[e-mail]
Do not reply to spam on the list, report it: https://pagure.io/fedora-infrastructure

[George N. White III]

On Sun, 7 Mar 2021 at 10:52, Tom Horsley  wrote:
> In my experience the only reliable open source drivers are the
> ones for Intel, and Intel doesn't make a stand alone video
> card, just on board video for Intel motherboards.
>
> For several releases now I've given the nouveau drivers a chance
> on each new fedora install, and within a week (usually within
> two hours) I've had the desktop freeze up hard, so I install the
> rpmfusion binary nvidia drivers and never have any more trouble.

There was a series of kernels for which nouveau drivers with many
older Nvidia cards would freeze as you describe.

https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=976788
upstream: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/drm/nouveau/-/issues/14

For Fedora, 5.8.18 was the last kernel that worked.  Patches are
available and expected to be integrated into 5.11 kernels.  I just installed
5.11.0-0.rc6.141.vanilla.1.fc33.x86_64 and it has gone an hour without
a crash.

[Tom Horsley]

On Sun, 7 Mar 2021 13:20:22 -0400
George N. White III wrote:
> I just installed
> 5.11.0-0.rc6.141.vanilla.1.fc33.x86_64 and it has gone an hour without
> a crash.

As is my tradition, I'll given them another chance when I
upgrade to fedora 34 in a few months, but the first freeze
I'll install nvidia again.

[Matthew Miller]

On Sun, Mar 07, 2021 at 09:55:54AM -0500, Alex wrote:
> Yeah, great point. I actually forgot about that - I'm using the radeon
> driver, which I think is also from rpmfusion.

Radeon and AMDGPU open source drivers are included in Fedora Linux
directly... no need for third-party repos.

[Matthew Miller]

On Sun, Mar 07, 2021 at 09:14:22AM -0500, Alex wrote:
> I use my desktop for basic photo editing, playing videos, and basic
> office/browser work. What recommendations do you have? Here's my
> requirements:
> native open source drivers
> supports at least three monitors
> PCIe x16
> support for 4K
> HDMI output
> audio not necessary

AMD cards are going to be your only options here, because the two choices
for open source drivers are AMD and Intel, and Intel doesn't make
stand-alone cards with multi-monitor support. (With some laptop models, you
can drive the internal display plus one with the built-in external HDMI plus
one over thunderbolt, for a total of three displays, but that doesn't sound
like what you're looking for.)

I personally have been very happy with AMD cards (previously, a Vega 56 and
now a Radeon Pro W5700) on Fedora Workstation -- they basically just work,
and provide a great gaming experience.

[Alex]

Hi,
> > native open source drivers
> > supports at least three monitors
> > PCIe x16
> > support for 4K
> > HDMI output
> > audio not necessary
>
> AMD cards are going to be your only options here, because the two choices
> for open source drivers are AMD and Intel, and Intel doesn't make
> stand-alone cards with multi-monitor support. (With some laptop models, you
> can drive the internal display plus one with the built-in external HDMI plus
> one over thunderbolt, for a total of three displays, but that doesn't sound
> like what you're looking for.)
>
> I personally have been very happy with AMD cards (previously, a Vega 56 and
> now a Radeon Pro W5700) on Fedora Workstation -- they basically just work,
> and provide a great gaming experience.

Those are in a completely different range from what I was thinking.
$800 for a video card? And only using the open source driver?

My comment about using an open source driver was based on the need for
stability, but if the binary driver provides better support for the
card, and is still stable, then I would consider that as well.

[Samuel Sieb]

On 3/7/21 5:28 PM, Alex wrote:
> Hi,
> > > native open source drivers
> > > supports at least three monitors
> > > PCIe x16
> > > support for 4K
> > > HDMI output
> > > audio not necessary
> >
> > AMD cards are going to be your only options here, because the two choices
> > for open source drivers are AMD and Intel, and Intel doesn't make
> > stand-alone cards with multi-monitor support. (With some laptop models, you
> > can drive the internal display plus one with the built-in external HDMI plus
> > one over thunderbolt, for a total of three displays, but that doesn't sound
> > like what you're looking for.)
> >
> > I personally have been very happy with AMD cards (previously, a Vega 56 and
> > now a Radeon Pro W5700) on Fedora Workstation -- they basically just work,
> > and provide a great gaming experience.
>
> Those are in a completely different range from what I was thinking.
> $800 for a video card? And only using the open source driver?

That seems to be a typical price for a gaming video card.
> My comment about using an open source driver was based on the need for
> stability, but if the binary driver provides better support for the
> card, and is still stable, then I would consider that as well.

AMD cards work great and are supported out of the box.  The NVidia cards 
require you to manage the proprietary drivers.

I haven't done any research, but with a quick look around, as someone 
else said, this appears to be a terrible time to buy a video card. 
Almost everything is expensive and out of stock.

I did see one card online at the store I usually buy from.  It's a 
Radeon™ Pro WX 2100 for $200CAD that supports up to 3 4K monitors.  This 
isn't a recommendation because I haven't done any research or 
comparisons, but you might be able to find something.

[Alex]

Hi,
> > > > native open source drivers
> > > > supports at least three monitors
> > > > PCIe x16
> > > > support for 4K
> > > > HDMI output
> > > > audio not necessary
> > >
> > > AMD cards are going to be your only options here, because the two choices
> > > for open source drivers are AMD and Intel, and Intel doesn't make
> > > stand-alone cards with multi-monitor support. (With some laptop models, you
> > > can drive the internal display plus one with the built-in external HDMI plus
> > > one over thunderbolt, for a total of three displays, but that doesn't sound
> > > like what you're looking for.)
> > >
> > > I personally have been very happy with AMD cards (previously, a Vega 56 and
> > > now a Radeon Pro W5700) on Fedora Workstation -- they basically just work,
> > > and provide a great gaming experience.
> >
> > Those are in a completely different range from what I was thinking.
> > $800 for a video card? And only using the open source driver?
>
> That seems to be a typical price for a gaming video card.

I mentioned earlier on, but probably should have been more clear, that
I'm not really interested in it for gaming. This is my everyday
desktop that I use for a Windows VM and office work. Hmm... are these
games on Linux that people are playing, anyway?

How about this card? It says it's on sale, but is it really?
https://www.newegg.com/gigabyte-radeon-rx-5500-xt-gv-r55xtoc-4gd/p/N82E16814...

This has three DisplayPort connectors - my current monitors do support
displayport, although I'll need new cables.
> I did see one card online at the store I usually buy from.  It's a
> Radeon™ Pro WX 2100 for $200CAD that supports up to 3 4K monitors.  This
> isn't a recommendation because I haven't done any research or
> comparisons, but you might be able to find something.

Looks like about $140 USD on amazon here - but only 2GB RAM? Won't
that affect the maximum resolution?

[Samuel Sieb]

On 3/7/21 5:57 PM, Alex wrote:
> I mentioned earlier on, but probably should have been more clear, that
> I'm not really interested in it for gaming. This is my everyday
> desktop that I use for a Windows VM and office work. Hmm... are these
> games on Linux that people are playing, anyway?

You did say that.  You seemed to be surprised about the price, so I was 
just pointing out that it's a typical price range for a gaming card. 
And yes, gaming on Linux has greatly increased, particularly since a lot 
more games are cross-platform now and even more so since Steam supports 
running a lot of windows games on Linux as well.
> How about this card? It says it's on sale, but is it really?
> https://www.newegg.com/gigabyte-radeon-rx-5500-xt-gv-r55xtoc-4gd/p/N82E16814...
>
> This has three DisplayPort connectors - my current monitors do support
> displayport, although I'll need new cables.

I have no idea, you'll have to look around and compare prices.  And yes, 
you'll need to order display to hdmi adapters.  They should be cheap, 
don't get tricked by the very expensive ones.  (It's really only pin 
conversions between the different connectors.)  Note that the card I 
pointed out has one regular displayport and two mini displayport 
connectors, so pick your card before ordering adapters.
> > I did see one card online at the store I usually buy from.  It's a
> > Radeon™ Pro WX 2100 for $200CAD that supports up to 3 4K monitors.  This
> > isn't a recommendation because I haven't done any research or
> > comparisons, but you might be able to find something.
>
> Looks like about $140 USD on amazon here - but only 2GB RAM? Won't
> that affect the maximum resolution?

No.  The actual display data for 3 4K monitors is less than 100MB.  The 
rest of the memory is used for buffers and 3D rendering stuff.  Even if 
you don't play games, the 3D rendering hardware is used by compositors 
like Gnome Shell and video playback.

[Alex]

Hi,
> > > I did see one card online at the store I usually buy from.  It's a
> > > Radeon™ Pro WX 2100 for $200CAD that supports up to 3 4K monitors.  This
> > > isn't a recommendation because I haven't done any research or
> > > comparisons, but you might be able to find something.
> >
> > Looks like about $140 USD on amazon here - but only 2GB RAM? Won't
> > that affect the maximum resolution?
>
> No.  The actual display data for 3 4K monitors is less than 100MB.  The
> rest of the memory is used for buffers and 3D rendering stuff.  Even if
> you don't play games, the 3D rendering hardware is used by compositors
> like Gnome Shell and video playback.

Am I going to notice a big difference between a 2GB card and a 4GB
card if I don't use it to play games?

I believe the card I have now only has 1GB (it may be more than ten
years old, lol), but I would like to invest in something that's going
to last a while...

[Samuel Sieb]

On 3/7/21 6:44 PM, Alex wrote:
> Hi,
> > > > I did see one card online at the store I usually buy from.  It's a
> > > > Radeon™ Pro WX 2100 for $200CAD that supports up to 3 4K monitors.  This
> > > > isn't a recommendation because I haven't done any research or
> > > > comparisons, but you might be able to find something.
> > >
> > > Looks like about $140 USD on amazon here - but only 2GB RAM? Won't
> > > that affect the maximum resolution?
> >
> > No.  The actual display data for 3 4K monitors is less than 100MB.  The
> > rest of the memory is used for buffers and 3D rendering stuff.  Even if
> > you don't play games, the 3D rendering hardware is used by compositors
> > like Gnome Shell and video playback.
>
> Am I going to notice a big difference between a 2GB card and a 4GB
> card if I don't use it to play games?

Not likely.  Very similar to how CPUs are now as well.
> I believe the card I have now only has 1GB (it may be more than ten
> years old, lol), but I would like to invest in something that's going
> to last a while...

It will last.  But look around a bit.  That one was just the only AMD 
card that was in stock at the store I checked and was a reasonable 
price.  You might be able to find one with a bit more memory for a bit 
more money.  I personally think that it will work just fine for your 
use, but don't be surprised if someone asks you why you have such a 
low-end outdated card. :-)

[Tim]

On Sun, 2021-03-07 at 20:57 -0500, Alex wrote:
> but only 2GB RAM? Won't that affect the maximum resolution?

Yes, but...  It's going to depend on how the card works.

4k resolution is 3840 × 2160 pixels = 8,294,400 addressable pixels.

8,294,400 addresses × 3 (red, green, & blue colours) = 24,883,200
memory locations to store one screen of image data.

Depending on how many bits per colour, then the whole screen uses this
much memory for one static screen:

× 8 bits:  199,065,600 bits (24,883,200 bytes, or 25 MB)
× 16 bits:  398,131,200 bits (49,766,400 bytes, or 50 MB)
× 32 bits:  796,262,400 bits (99,532,800 bytes, or 100 MB)

That's assuming a simple bitmap of the screen display, as opposed to
compressed image handling (such as a 100 × 100 blue square being
defined mathematically rather than just being a memory dump of the
contents).

The things that are harder to calculate are how it handles moving
images.  How many frames does it need to be able to hold in memory? 
How does it do other rendering tricks (3D, for instance)?  Does it
decode compressed video itself (e.g. the computer hands over compressed
MP4 video data to the graphics card to decompress back to RGB, passing
over a small amount of data to a graphics processor with oodles of RAM
all to itself).

[George N. White III]

On Sun, 7 Mar 2021 at 21:58, Alex  wrote:
> Hi,
> > > > > native open source drivers
> > > > > supports at least three monitors
> > > > > PCIe x16
> > > > > support for 4K
> > > > > HDMI output
> > > > > audio not necessary
> > > >
> > > > AMD cards are going to be your only options here, because the two
>
> choices
> > > > for open source drivers are AMD and Intel, and Intel doesn't make
> > > > stand-alone cards with multi-monitor support. (With some laptop
>
> models, you
> > > > can drive the internal display plus one with the built-in external
>
> HDMI plus
> > > > one over thunderbolt, for a total of three displays, but that doesn't
>
> sound
> > > > like what you're looking for.)
> > > >
> > > > I personally have been very happy with AMD cards (previously, a Vega
>
> 56 and
> > > > now a Radeon Pro W5700) on Fedora Workstation -- they basically just
>
> work,
> > > > and provide a great gaming experience.
> > >
> > > Those are in a completely different range from what I was thinking.
> > $800 for a video card? And only using the open source driver?
> >
> > That seems to be a typical price for a gaming video card.
>
> I mentioned earlier on, but probably should have been more clear, that
> I'm not really interested in it for gaming. This is my everyday
> desktop that I use for a Windows VM and office work. Hmm... are these
> games on Linux that people are playing, anyway?
>
> How about this card? It says it's on sale, but is it really?rr
>
> https://www.newegg.com/gigabyte-radeon-rx-5500-xt-gv-r55xtoc-4gd/p/N82E16814...

Older cards have higher power and cooling requirements, and you have to
factor in the cost
of adapters.   Low end cards are being displaced by improved 'integrated'
graphics and because
the vendors make more profits on higher end cards. In this market your best
bet may be to look
for used cards from people who upgraded to newer gaming cards.   Some older
cards with 3 ports
[ HDMI | DP | DVI |VGA] may only support 2 monitors.   If your system has
the capacity (bus
slots and power), you might be better off adding another single-port card.

I have a low-end 10+ year-old Nvidia card and use nouveau, but a small
mistake introduced after
kernel 5.8.18 wasn't corrected until 5.11 (just now being tested -- more
recent changes may have
introduced new bugs that weren't detected since nobody could use them).
Older cards are at risk
that open source drivers will not be properly maintained.

If you don't need high performance on all 3 monitors you might be able to
add a USB3 card with
a USB3 to video adapter.  There are adapters that have linux drivers, some
reported to work
with Fedora using 3rd party RPM's.

[Matthew Miller]

On Sun, Mar 07, 2021 at 08:28:23PM -0500, Alex wrote:
> Those are in a completely different range from what I was thinking.
> $800 for a video card? And only using the open source driver?

Unfortunately, video cards are just crazy right now, as others have
mentioned in the thread.
> My comment about using an open source driver was based on the need for
> stability, but if the binary driver provides better support for the
> card, and is still stable, then I would consider that as well.

Open source drivers are 100% going to be the most stable, lowest-hassle
option.

[Tom Horsley]

On Mon, 8 Mar 2021 10:18:24 -0500
Matthew Miller wrote:
> Open source drivers are 100% going to be the most stable, lowest-hassle
> option.

Not remotely true in my experience. I always give the nouveau drivers a shot
in every new fedora release and they always crash my system within a week
(usually within a couple of hours). I switch to the nvidia drivers after that
and never have another problem.

[Doug H.]

On Mon, Mar 8, 2021, at 7:28 AM, Tom Horsley wrote:
> On Mon, 8 Mar 2021 10:18:24 -0500
> Matthew Miller wrote:
> > Open source drivers are 100% going to be the most stable, lowest-hassle
> > option.
>
> Not remotely true in my experience. I always give the nouveau drivers a 
> shot
> in every new fedora release and they always crash my system within a 
> week
> (usually within a couple of hours). I switch to the nvidia drivers 
> after that
> and never have another problem.

That is true but you do have to remember that nouveau is open source based on closed source. This is why Linus gave the finger to Nvidia.

[Matthew Miller]

On Mon, Mar 08, 2021 at 10:28:40AM -0500, Tom Horsley wrote:
> > Open source drivers are 100% going to be the most stable, lowest-hassle
> > option.
>
> Not remotely true in my experience. I always give the nouveau drivers a shot
> in every new fedora release and they always crash my system within a week
> (usually within a couple of hours). I switch to the nvidia drivers after that
> and never have another problem.

I'm sorry, let me rephrase: cards for which there are open source drivers
supported by the manufacturer (AMD, Intel) are the best choice. With Nvidia,
Nouveau is always playing a catch-up guessing game.

[Roger Heflin]

As others have said the prices are very bad for any of the better
cards.  I was looking at a card before for $150 that was decent, the
prices I find for it now are 2x if you can even find it.

You might be best off buying one that is good enough for now and then
replacing it with another when the madness settles down. I have an
nvidia geforce 730gt gddr5, it does not quite meet the specs (3 ports,
one vga, one dvi and one hdmi) and will handle one 4k monitor and one
2500x(dvi) and another less resolution on vga.

It is a $50-$70 card and is old enough and not really useful for
gaming so not affected by the pricing mess too much.  If you do look
at this, there is a gddr3 and a gddr5, the gddr5 is a newer and better
chipset.  The gddr5 can do on-card encoding (nvenc but only at 1080),
the gddr3 cannot do that and does not have as good of resolution
support.  I run the nvidia packaged driver from rpmfusion and the only
issues I have had are a couple of times I have upgraded to a kernel
and had minor (immediate) issues with the driver not being there.  But
it does appear to be stable when I am running the rpmfusion packaged
driver.

On Mon, Mar 8, 2021 at 10:04 AM Matthew Miller  wrote:
> On Mon, Mar 08, 2021 at 10:28:40AM -0500, Tom Horsley wrote:
> > > Open source drivers are 100% going to be the most stable, lowest-hassle
> > > option.
> >
> > Not remotely true in my experience. I always give the nouveau drivers a shot
> > in every new fedora release and they always crash my system within a week
> > (usually within a couple of hours). I switch to the nvidia drivers after that
> > and never have another problem.
>
> I'm sorry, let me rephrase: cards for which there are open source drivers
> supported by the manufacturer (AMD, Intel) are the best choice. With Nvidia,
> Nouveau is always playing a catch-up guessing game.
>
> --
> Matthew Miller
>
> Fedora Project Leader
> _______________________________________________
> users mailing list -- [e-mail]
> To unsubscribe send an email to [e-mail]
> Fedora Code of Conduct: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/code-of-conduct/
> List Guidelines: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines
> List Archives: https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[e-mail]
> Do not reply to spam on the list, report it: https://pagure.io/fedora-infrastructure