Linux HTPC Video card question...

JamesfromDFW

JamesfromDFW

Weaksauce
Joined
Mar 19, 2016
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I have a Core2Duo 3.06Ghz with 4GB of ram and 1TB Seagate HDD and I noticed DVD's and 720p mpeg4 rips videos are pixelated and surprisingly the sound is, uh...sound (lol). So I'm all mixed up from watching youtube videos on what GPU (low profile) card i should buy. Some say 730 isn't worth it and a 1050 is overboard and I've had bad experiences with a 210. I'm not sure what to do for my bedroom PC with KODI, DVD and rips.
 
Anything pre-maxwell from nvidia or pre-vega gcn on amd should work with open drivers. Not sure what chip the 710 has in it, but if it's kepler that might be the card to get. AMD wise it looks like the r7 240 is the cheapest thing, but it's 3x the price of the 710 so.... ya.
 
Personally I would just install Kodi on a ODROID C2 for $40 and it has hardware decoding support for up to 4k. Just use your existing PC for ripping DVDs and storing your content.
 
GT1030 if you don't mind running closed drivers for the next few months. OSS driver support is on the way though.
 
JamesfromDFW said:
That's what I'm looking at now (GT 1030) for $80 by EVGA or GT 710 Evga for $40
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Not sure if it matters but the EVGA card isn't true single slot. The fan shroud is too high.

MSI and Gigabyte make true single slot + low profile 1030's. MSI has DP + HDMI. Gigabyte has HDMI + DVI.

The MSI card is a great way to get DP 1.4 + HDMI 2.0b into a HTPC or racked server.

It's been a long time since I've seen a true single slot + low profile current generation card. There was a 750ti but I could never find it in stock anywhere.

Too bad there isn't a comparable AMD option, but the AMD OSS drivers are a mess right now anyway.
 
BecauseScience said:
Not sure if it matters but the EVGA card isn't true single slot. The fan shroud is too high.

MSI and Gigabyte make true single slot + low profile 1030's. MSI has DP + HDMI. Gigabyte has HDMI + DVI.

The MSI card is a great way to get DP 1.4 + HDMI 2.0b into a HTPC or racked server.

It's been a long time since I've seen a true single slot + low profile current generation card. There was a 750ti but I could never find it in stock anywhere.

Too bad there isn't a comparable AMD option, but the AMD OSS drivers are a mess right now anyway.
Click to expand...

Ooooh, that's really good to know, thank you, i wasn't sure about MSI because of there shoddy mobos back 7 years ago. Never bought Gigabyte except their AMD mobos. One hdmi is all i'll need for HP 4000 Pro.
 
Not sure what your budget is but an RX550 would be a pretty cheap option on the AMD side or the GT 1030 on the Nvidia side.
 
JamesfromDFW said:
Ooooh, that's really good to know, thank you, i wasn't sure about MSI because of there shoddy mobos back 7 years ago. Never bought Gigabyte except their AMD mobos.
Click to expand...

MSI and Gigabyte make fine GPUs. I've owned a couple of both.

JamesfromDFW said:
Under $130 - whatever works with linux (for now maybe go back to windows later)
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The MSI 1030 is about $70. It's a good option as long as your linux distro makes it easy to install the Nvidia closed source driver.

Simmonz said:
If it's Linux i'd go with the RX 550.

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=radeon-rx550-linux&num=3

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=nvidia-geforce-1030&num=3
JamesfromDFW said:
Ooooh, that's really good to know, thank you, i wasn't sure about MSI because of there shoddy mobos back 7 years ago. Never bought Gigabyte except their AMD mobos. One hdmi is all i'll need for HP 4000 Pro.
Click to expand...

I know you're not using the system for gaming but it gives an idea on the performance difference in the cards.
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Audio over HDMI and DP don't work on recent AMD GPUs at the moment.

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=81-More-DC-Patches

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=AMDGPU-DC-TODO-List

TL;DR Audio support won't make it into the upcoming 4.14 linux kernel either.

It'll be a while before kernel 4.15 drops. It's possible to get audio working with patched kernels but running patched isn't for everyone.

Normally I always recommend AMD for linux but the world is upside down right now with the DC mess. AMD really dropped the ball on this one.
 
I forgot one important thing! Nvidia closed source driver doesn't work with Wayland yet. You need to switch back to x11 if your distro uses Wayland. Typically, that's as easy as editing the gdm config file and regenerating initrd.
 
Last edited:
BecauseScience said:
MSI and Gigabyte make fine GPUs. I've owned a couple of both.



The MSI 1030 is about $70. It's a good option as long as your linux distro makes it easy to install the Nvidia closed source driver.



Audio over HDMI and DP don't work on recent AMD GPUs at the moment.

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=81-More-DC-Patches

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=AMDGPU-DC-TODO-List

TL;DR Audio support won't make it into the upcoming 4.14 linux kernel either.

It'll be a while before kernel 4.15 drops. It's possible to get audio working with patched kernels but running patched isn't for everyone.

Normally I always recommend AMD for linux but the world is upside down right now with the DC mess. AMD really dropped the ball on this one.
Click to expand...

That's a good point I hadn't considered. I often forget about the HDMI audio issue as I use headphones on my system so it doesn't effect me.
 
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