What's a good video card for Linux?

[Red Squirrel]

A big part of why Linux multi-monitor sucks so much is X11 limitations, and that's not going to be resolved until Wayland and/or Mir mature, which could be years out.

If multi-monitor support is your killer app, Linux is not the right platform for you.

That's kinda sad, you'd think a "geek oriented" OS like Linux would be all over multi monitor support. But yeah it sounds like the grim truth is that it's not.

What about those converter boxes you plug two monitors in and it makes it show up as one, are those any good? I just want more pixel real estate at this point, so I'll settle for anything. Discrete monitors are better as apps wont open half way between two or do other weird stuff, but guess I can't have my cake and eat it too.

Too bad they don't make monitors with ridiculous resolutions like 6000x8000. I'd love that, even if it cost like 2k.

Back on my old setup now.

Another thing I might just end up sticking with is synergy with another machine. I have having to have another machine running though, but guess once I run the proper cables I can tuck it away in my server room. The advantage is if I reboot the main box the other one stays up. I usually keep all my coding consoles, debug stuff etc on the separate monitors so I would not have to reopen all my work if I decide to go game in windows.

Maybe I just have to adapt to not having 3x monitors within the same OS. Though there's also having a separate X session, but when I tried that, it got really flaky. The theme kept screwing up and stuff.

I just need to make it my goal now to try to figure out this random square issue. Guess I just need to try an updated nvidia card and hope for the best. Maybe a Titan.

 

[Jodell88]

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.ph..._.28Dual_Head_.2F_Dual_Screen_.2F_Xinerama.29

 

[ControlD]

Trying an ATI 7850 right now. Not even detecting 2 monitors, so not a good start.

That is strange. What distro are you currently on? I have been running dual monitors (one panel, one HDTV) from my 7850 with Mint 14/15 and it works like a charm. I did have to enable the second monitor, but after that it works great.

 

[zoiks]

Also how did you install the drivers? I recommend using the catalyst drivers from AMD. There is a specific way of installing that and there are some howto's on this on the web.

 

[Red Squirrel]

In XUbuntu I used the proprietary driver tool, though when I applied the update (found a tutorial saying it would get rid of the "unsupported hardware" watermark) it botched the system where it would no longer boot into the GUI. In Mint (just a test partition), I used the package manager since it does not have the tool Xubuntu has. I think I know what the issue may have been though, the second port on the ATI card are strictly digital, so think it was not passing through the DVI to VGA converter. I've spent too much money lately troubleshooting this problem so I don't want to buy more monitors. I decided to just give up on this for now till I can recoop more money. I've also been building a file server (unrelated) which is turning out to cost quite a lot.

When I have more money I'll replace the two monitors with DVI ones and buy the proper DVI cables and try again. I'll also reinstall the OS from scratch as I think the presence of the Nvidia driver may be an issue. Been wanting to try the latest Mint anyway, so may do just that.

 

[obidamnkenobi]

Using a 6970 to power 2 30" Dell displays and it runs beautifully on my 13.04.

Does that card work with sleep and hibernate? Using Mint 13 & 14 with my HD6950 and AMD drivers I've had issues with resume from hibernate. It seems the card doesn't power off/on right.

I think it worked recently after a reinstall while I used the xorg drivers. But with AMD drivers its broken again. Tempted to look for an nvidia card since linux drivers seem to be better.