Green Graphics Adapter Recommendation

[blu-QDUPAvFnyULR7s880joybQ at public.gmane.org (Bob - BLU)]

On 10/17/2008 05:15 PM, Jarod Wilson wrote:
> On Fri, 2008-10-17 at 16:54 -0400, Bob - BLU wrote:
>> I have a Linux server that needs a graphics adapter.  It will spend most of it's time displaying an X login window, and the rest of the time displaying an X session while maintenance occurs.  No games here.  But I expect to be running a few virtual machines under VirtualBox or VMWare.  So I'm looking for a graphics adapter than can handle that (most any), and not chew up much power as it spends its life displaying the login window.
>>
>> The motherboard has a PCI 2.0 x16 slot for an adapter.
> 
> Pretty sure you mean "PCI Express 2.0 x16".

Yes, that is correct, thank you.

>> I was thinking an NVidia based card as they seem to have the best drivers (proprietary is acceptable here).
>>
>> Any recommendations for a 'green' card?
> 
> Anything fanless, as they're already predisposed to using less power
> than cards w/fans. Personally, for that particular job, I'd stay away
> from proprietary drivers, as that's an unneeded hassle -- the free
> drivers for both ATI and nVidia cards should do just fine. I'd probably
> go with something like an ATI Radeon X550 or an nVidia GeForce 6200 -- a
> few generations old, and thus had cheaply and likely well-supported even
> by an "older" distro (*cough* RHEL), and both available in fanless
> variants.

Well reasoned, thank you.

If I step too far back on the tech curve I will end up with a different connector.  However, the board does have a PCI Express 1.1 x1 connector.  I want to save the regular PCI slots for other things.

On open source drivers, can one assume that the ATI (Radeon) drivers are better (subjective) than the NVidia (GeForce) drivers.  I'll make the assumption that for my needs this is a rather moot discussion.