Official Recommendations for Graphics Cards

[Updated Sept 7, 2023]

If you need an out-of-the box solution that works, our Linux/Windows machine service is thoroughly tested and optimized for use with our devices. It is the only complete system guaranteed to work with our hardware and is backed by a 3-year manufacturer’s warranty.

If you plan to use your own GPU or PC build, please read on for important information.

In the past, VPixx has tried to avoid being too strict with GPU recommendations. Our actual graphics requirements are fairly simple, as our hardware does the “heavy lifting.” In theory many commercial cards should work fine. 

In practice, modern GPU drivers have a frustrating variety of bugs that affect our systems and cause headaches for our customers. In particular, some of our synchronization and high bit depth tools depend on something called pixel identity passthrough, which is the one-to-one mapping of pixel value assignment by software and GPU output.  Many modern GPUs employ methods to jitter pixel values to ‘improve’ graphics, which disrupts passthrough and breaks our tools.

This is not a problem as long as these jittering methods can be disabled— which they often can be. Unfortunately we’ve had reports of serious GPU driver bugs which make it impossible to disable these methods, even via the low-level tweaks available via Psychtoolbox. This has happened on multiple cards across a variety of brands, price points and operating systems. 

VPixx doesn’t have the ability to test all GPUs on the market for such bugs. There is a list of cards at the bottom of this message which are known to be a problem, most of them reported by VPixx customers. 

If you are looking to buy a new card: Please consider purchasing our Linux/Windows machine service. It is guaranteed to work, and we test every unit ourselves. This may save you many headaches, especially if you plan to use our synchronization tools or high bit depth video modes.

If you want to use, or think you might be able to use, an existing experiment PC:  Try it out! The GPU must support 1920 x 1080 @ 120 Hz and have one of the following outputs:

– Dual-link DVI (VIEWPixx CRT replacements only)
– DisplayPort
– DisplayPort mini/Thunderbolt 2
– USB-C/Thunderbolt 3
As soon as you set up your equipment, we recommend running through the diagnostic tests in our guide to dithering. This will tell you if passthrough might be an issue for your specific build, and give you some options to disable unwanted GPU behaviour. If disabling it doesn’t work, please get in touch with us so we can add your GPU to our list of problem cards. We can also try and suggest workarounds for your specific research needs. Unfortunately we cannot troubleshoot GPU drivers and may not be able to fix the problem.

Known problem cards:
Under Mac –
Under Windows – Nvidia Quadro series cards; AMD Pro series cards, including Radeon WX4100
Under Linux/Ubuntu – Nvidia GTX 1650, 20XX series, 30XX series; Nvidia Quadro series, including the P4000; AMD Pro series cards including Radeon WX4100 

Note: We strongly recommend against using Nvidia Quadro or AMD Pro series graphics card as we have had issues with their drivers in the past.