What graphics card on Linux?

Martyn Page

 Hi guys!

I do not use your software but build computers for customers according to their requirements!

I have a customer that wants me to build a computer that can run both Windows 10 and Kubuntu 16.04 LTS... the 16.10 LTS hasn't been released yet.

At times, finding the right drivers for graphics cards can be a pain....

My customer has this version of your software at the moment BricsCAD Platinum, ver 15.2.11.

I am looking at a good motherboard and processor for the task with 16GB or 32GB of ram.

The motherboard is a Asus Z170 Pro Gaming...not because he is interested in gaming rather because it is well liked and a stable platform to build on...with its Z170 expess chipset...

The processor is  a skylake Core i7 6700k 4GHz

The rest of the build is not important...

Often the talk of graphics cards for your software or should I say CAD revolves around Nvidia quadro...or Amd Firepro....

What I am looking for is someone willing to comment on either first hand experience with the above cards on the latest version of Ubuntu/Kubuntu or insight into what other cards are going to give my customer good performance and supported in Linux on 16.04 LTS.

Can someone be so kind as to give me some help...please!

Thanks!

Martyn

Benjamin Conder

For Linux with BricsCAD I would only use Nvidia cards right now. I would also stick with the Geforce 900 series or higher. I would only recommend a quadro/firepro card only if 3D modeling/rendering must maintain a high level of data integrity and reliability. I think a quadro/firepro would be wasted on this system unless you changed your motherboard and CPU to a Enterprise equipment. I would say a gaming graphics cards are fine for 95% CAD work. However, if you are preforming tasks where the utmost precision matters then you would want to make sure all your hardware was also built at the utmost precision. 

Also there is no such thing as Ubuntu 16.10 LTS. The only LTS (Long Term Support) versions are the ones that have .04 after the first number which is also even. 

So 12.04, 14.04, 16.04, Next one that will be LTS is 18.04. 

I would stick the .04 versions when using Ubuntu with BricsCAD. It'll still work on ubuntu 16.10 it's just more likely to stay working and be stable on an LTS version.

I hope this helps. 

Martyn Page

 Hi Benjamin!

Sorry, you are right of course...lLTS is the .04 series...;) I prefer them because of using them on my servers...don't have to continually upgrade them...;)

I do thank you for your help and will let my customer know this and it is up to him if I build the computer from your recommendations...

Not being a games or CAD person have little idea about what one really needs and research is always the best way!

Thanks for your time!

Martyn

Martyn Page

 Hi Benjamin!

Just out of curiosity...if you were building a new computer...which motherboard...processor would you be looking at?

Martyn

Benjamin Conder

 It all really depends on what kind of CAD work your client is doing on the computer. The choices you picked out sound fine to me. I will say more RAM is always a good idea with CAD applications. 

Martyn Page

 Hi Benjamin!

Thanks for your time!

Martyn