I'm looking to build a system that will run Linux at least 90% of the time (perhaps dual boot or run some other OS in a virtual machine) and looking at video card options. I'm not looking for a gaming machine, but decent video performance for 3D desktops and for streaming video is a requirement.
I want the ability to change linux distributions and change kernel versions, without having to worry about compatibility with AMD or Nvidia binary blobs. I want good performance with the open source drivers and then if I can get some improvement with the vendor provided driver, perhaps that might be a bonus. Perhaps a fan free card might be good if that's an option.
So far I've found a lot of people saying get ATI/AMD, e.g. HD 4xxx and 5xxx series, but not the recent cards.
http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/9553/how-do-i-choose-a-graphics-card-for-linux
Here, the specific advice appears to be to use the ATI Radeon HD 4670.
http://www.free3d.org/
However, these are an older cards now and not so easy to purchase new in NZ (eBay perhaps).
Does anyone have any other recommendations?
Did you do any back to back comparisons before selecting a card?
How did you choose?