Mike, whichever you decide to get, here is a chart that compares all the
Nvidia and ATI cards.
 
Find a model that you're interested in, and look it up on the chart, it will
show the comparable card in the opposite column.
 
It also shows you how many jumps up your new card would be from the old one.
 
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-graphics-card,2464-8.html
 
 

  _____  

From: plug-discuss-bounces@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
[mailto:plug-discuss-bounces@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us] On Behalf Of Mike
Bushroe
Sent: Sunday, November 08, 2009 11:08 AM
To: plug-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
Subject: Cheap Linux compatible video cards


My old computer is stating to have trouble running some of the newer
software. In particular, I am getting free training in SolidWorks to use
when Mentoring Highschool teams in First Robotics and also Underwater
Robotics Competition. Unfortunately, SolidWorks only works on Windows, and
my Windoze partition is indeed gettey VERY slow and sleepy. SolidWorks
initially would not run becasue the video drivers were out of date. I have
fixed so that it will run, but is still VERY slow. I already have all RAM
slots full, so I would have to pull and replace, and the best I could do is
double the RAM from 2G to 4G. But a newer video card than my old ATI Radeon
X300 might speed up the graphics intensive CAD program. Can anyone recommend
an inexpesnive (under $100 and preferably in the $40 to $60 range) PCI-E16
video card that will have both Linux drivers (32bit and 64bit) and also
Windoze XP drivers (32bit and 64bit)?

I know that ATI has great support for Linux, but most of their cards are
quite expensive. Any specific sugestions?

Mike