I'm  building or buying a new Linux system, and I'm trying to select the best graphics card for my needs. How do I go about making this decision?There's dozens of computer-gear review sites which drool over every detail of new graphics hardware and perform detailed benchmarks and pros and cons  for Microsoft Windows. Are these ever useful sources of information for Linux too? Does any site at least give Linux a cursory look?I'm primarily interested in good 2D performance, but with fancy new desktop environments now requiring hardware-accelerated 3D, I need to consider that too. Where can I find pre-purchase information on that?I strongly prefer having an open source driver. How do I judge which open source drivers are the best in terms of features support and performance, without joining a dozen different mailing lists? Are specific companies almost always the best bet, or does it change?What are the advantages and drawbacks of a closed-source driver? Is this mostly about 3D performance, or are there other features enabled by proprietary drivers that I might miss out on? Since a closed-source driver will mark the Linux kernel as tainted, are the closed-source companies good at providing direct end-user support for related problems? Is the state-of-the-art finally such that I can choose between open or closed for any given graphics card, or do some models require one or the other?It'd be great if the  card just worked hassle-free with whatever modern Linux distribution I choose, with no need to go through a long how-to process. Is this a reasonable hope, and how can I best find a card that'll work that way?How do I find if a specific graphics driver fits a given model on the market? Is it best to buy older cards in order to insure that support is available?
How do I choose a graphics card for Linux?
linux;xorg;graphics;hardware compatibility