choosing a video card, new linux box

[thanksbastards]

last piece of hte puzzle, pumped to finally hit the .zoing. switch soon! I already have the following:

AMD 1075t processer, 6x @ 3.0 ghz
MSI 880g-e45 mobo
8 gig corsair avenger ram (2 4g sticks)
600 watt PSU, forget brand right now

I plan on running linux, not sure what falvor just yet as I am finally abandoning Ubuntu (lock that dock on the left will you? you can't take the sky from me!) so I don't konw exactly what I will be running. I will probably be dual booting windows eventually, as I want to run CAD software on this machine such as inventor and proE (gross). the most taxing things i expect to be doing is large cad assemblies and editing HD video, and lots of 480 video at 120 fps. I like things with lots of ports on the back, because I am usually a few years behind in hardware, so it would be swell if i could still hook it up to things, but that's not a deal breaker.

oh and the case is huuuge, so no real space issues. I just want it to work well. no video games.

[GeorgeH]

Grab a GTS450 or GTX550Ti and call it a day. AMD makes good gaming cards, but right now NVIDIA is better for GPU accelerated applications.

[PhoenixEnigma]

The "real" answer for CAD/DCC/etc work is a workstation card, either Quadro or FirePro. Given that you're looking at a midrange-ish AMD system, though, I'm going to go out on a limb and say the asking price of those ($400+ for what you'd want) will be a little steep.

With that in mind, I'd second GeorgeH's advice - get a decent nVidia card. From what I hear, the Linux drivers are better, and there's a better chance of GPGPU support with them in general, either by default or with minor work (for example, Adobe Premier, where it's quite easy to enable the GPU MPE for all nVidia cards).

Without some idea of your budget and what exactly you're connecting, it's a little hard to give exact recommendations, but something from nVidia in the $100-$200 bracket, with a pair of DVI-D ports, a DP output, and at least 1GB RAM, is probably going to work well, last a good long while, and not break the bank too badly.

[thanksbastards]

well since I have spent about 350 on the whole kit and caboodle, I would figure buying a 400+ card to be a bit overkill and i wouldn't see what it could do w/ the rest of the system holding it back. Something I didn't think of till now was multiple monitors. I want that to work easily and smoothly with linux. the ablity to go to 2+ moniters as i can afford them would be slick. I like to have side by side when doing CAD and research, and overunder for programming, both at once would make me squee, so having that expansion in the future would be cool.

ignore that I currently have a CRT cause my flatscreen died and my monitor money whent into this build...

[thanksbastards]

quickly doing my own research based on the suggestions given and some better idea of what I need, it looks like the GTx550ti is a level above the gts450, but at the same price point, am I missing something?

[GeorgeH]

The 450 was replaced by the 550, so you're probably just seeing limited availability (450) price stability combining with so-so gaming performance relative to AMD (550) price cuts in an already incredibly compressed price point (~$100 GPUs.)

550 - Slightly faster
450 - Slightly cooler/quieter

Flip a coin - from your stated usage I really doubt you'll be able to notice much difference between the two.