Best choice for video card

13 respuestas [Último envío]
Christian Lange
Desconectado/a
se unió: 08/16/2017

Hello,

I want to build up a new system with coreboot or libreboot based on the
Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2L board. At the moment I am thinking about what is
the best video card to choose.
The onboard Intel video card is no option for me. I need higher
resolution for my 27'' display that also has no sub d input.
First I thought the often recommended nvidia 8400 GS would be a good
choice, but then I read that video acceleration is only supported by
firmware blob.
I want to be able to watch 1080p videos in the web and I am not sure
which video card will do the job best with only free drivers.

Thanks for every helpful advice.

Magic Banana

I am a member!

I am a translator!

Desconectado/a
se unió: 07/24/2010

Intel's integrated graphical chipsets can show you "1080p videos in the web". At 60 frame per seconds. According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Graphics_Technology#Hardware-accelerated_algorithms it can do so, using hardware acceleration for H.262 and H.264 videos, since at least the Haswell family of processors, which is five years old. It is not only theoretical: I was seamlessly watching 1080p videos with my previous laptop, connected by HDMi to a 26" screen. It had a Haswell (at most Broadwell) processor, I believe.

Looking at the same table (linked above), the video acceleration of the Skylake family, which is three years old, reads H.264 and H.265 videos at resolution 2160p and 60 frames per seconds.

Intel graphics is what Linux-libre supports best. If I remember well what Chris Waid (CEO of ThinkPenguin) was writing on this forum, there is nothing better for video decoding (3D acceleration is another topic).

Christian Lange
Desconectado/a
se unió: 08/16/2017

Thanks for your reply, but as I said I want to build a
libreboot/coreboot system based on the mentioned board, that can only
rum core2 CPUs.

andyprough
Desconectado/a
se unió: 02/12/2015

You should search the Trisquel forums for "GA-G41M-ES2L", as there are several other discussions of the same topic - which video card to use with this board.

Some of the best information comes from member vita_cell, who has experience with different libreboot and coreboot setups with different graphics cards with this motherboard: https://trisquel.info/en/forum/graphic-card-recomendation-libreboot-ga-g41m-es2l

Also some other discussions:
2016 -- https://trisquel.info/en/forum/which-video-card-best-choice-today
2018 -- https://trisquel.info/en/forum/help-graphics-card-selection-desktop-build

vita_cell
Desconectado/a
se unió: 07/19/2015

I could to run fine an Nvidia card (gt740 with 2gb of gddr5) on that motherboard, but it won't work with Libreboot. I needed to compile Coreboot+seabios (without blobs obviously). If you run Libreboot, you can boot with integrated GPU chip, and then use dedicated video card for acceleration (I don't recommend it).

Christian Lange
Desconectado/a
se unió: 08/16/2017

Thanks for your help.

I just ordered a 8400 GS, flashed the board with coreboot and Seabios
and it works just fine out of the box.
The external graphic works also early at bootup in Seabios.
I did a quick test with trisquel live image and video playback at 1080p 
is also working without lagging.

delaforce
Desconectado/a
se unió: 05/18/2014

If you run Libreboot, you can boot with integrated GPU chip, and then use dedicated video card for acceleration (I don't recommend it):

Which graphic card can do this? I used several without succeed.

Is it coreboot + seabios = libreboot (intel me off) ?

thx

nadebula.1984
Desconectado/a
se unió: 05/01/2018

Never consider Nvidia cards older than Fermi architecture, mainly because of lacking new version API (such as OpenGL) support, which is necessary for many applications. But also stay away from Nvidia cards newer than Maxwell architecture, because anti-features like firmware signature.

Just pick one Fermi, Kepler, or Maxwell (GM1xx only) card with appropriate interface (DVI, HDMI or DP as you need). Neglect the non-free driver or firmware, they work perfectly without them (with acceptable performance). GTX750Ti (GM107) seems perfect for me.

GNUser
Desconectado/a
se unió: 07/17/2013

I am not sure if without proprietary firmware and drivers you can use the OpenGL.

nadebula.1984
Desconectado/a
se unió: 05/01/2018

Surely I can. One of my friends initially used a legacy graphics card (Tesla architecture or even older) and many applications couldn't run properly. When he switched to either Fermi or Kepler architecture card, everything was okay. So the OpenGL hardware support does make a difference, and is well supported. We all use deblobbed GNU/Linux distributions such as Debian or Trisquel.

delaforce
Desconectado/a
se unió: 05/18/2014

Sorry are you running pure-libreboot? , no seabios.

nadebula.1984
Desconectado/a
se unió: 05/01/2018

I don't see much freedom issue with SeaBIOS, licensed under GNU LGPL v3.

delaforce
Desconectado/a
se unió: 05/18/2014

My concern is about Intel Me disable completly .... I dont know if seabios is just a coreboot extension, without intel me disabled

Christian Lange
Desconectado/a
se unió: 08/16/2017

That is an interesting question. can someone say something about this?
Actually Iam running coreboot on my core2 and Atom system because
libreboot has some bugs and perfornce problems.

Am 18.06.19 um 16:23 schrieb name at domain:
> My concern is about Intel Me disable completly ....  I dont know if
> seabios is just a coreboot extension, without intel me disabled