ASUS GeForce GT 520 (Fermi) GT520-1GD3-CSM Video Card

Comment:
I'm not into gaming, I just want a low-end card in order to offload any graphics processing off my CPU and I don't want to use onboard video because it uses system memory.Given these requirements, I really like fanless cards. Of course they're not great performers but since I'll only be using it for the occasional 3D application like Google Earth that's fine. 3D is also required for the Unity desktop interface in Ubuntu, so if it can handle that, that's all I ask.This card fits the bill nicely. There are varying accounts around the web but it does seem like nVidia has better support in Linux overall.This card replaces another fanless card, a 9400 GT that I've moved to a secondary system. Published stats indicate it should be better in terms of performance and power consumption. I benchmarked it and yes it does perform better.Unigine Sanctuary: 14.4 FPS 9400 GT, 23.98 FPS GT 520Unigine Tropics: 12.68 FPS 9400 GT, 19.47 FPS GT 520Unigine Heaven: 8.78 FPS 9400 GT, 14.28 FPS GT 520Yes, those are unplayable framerates compared to more expensive cards but there is an improvement over the 9400 GT.Unlike the 9400 GT there's an HDMI output, the 9400 only has DVI and S-Video in addition to VGA. The 520 also has DVI. Both cards' heatsinks block a PCI slot but that's to be expected.So for what I use it for, highly recommended.