A slightly different nvidia vs ati question (I think)

[bduza]

I've read a lot of reviews and threads comparing these cards. It seems to be nine tenths of the topics in this section of the forum. Most of the questions don't really help me much.

I like to game a little. I'm quite happy booting into Windows to do that though. So my question isn't something like 'what card is better in wine?'

I prefer to use Ubuntu for everything but the times when I occasionally game (or am using QSC Creator at work). I particularly like to use the dvi/hdmi/vga/display port (dvi right now, but I am looking for a new laptop) and plug it into my HD tv at home, to watch video.

On my outdated laptop with an ati card (HD2300) this is impossible with linux. I'm resigned to that, and don't care about potential solutions, because I want a new laptop anyway. There are some decent laptops with NVidia cards, but there are a couple with ATI cards that really appeal.


So now for the question (i.e. sorry about the drivel above, here is the tl;dr):

With a HD5xx0 card (5770 most likely) and Ubuntu, what are my chances of playing HD video to a plasma/projector via HDMI/display port? Better or worse than with NVidia? If worse, how much worse? I'm perhaps an intermediate user of Ubuntu.

[rohcQaH]

no hardware accelerated video yet on fglrx. It's being worked on, but no official ETA or anything.

my projector (720p) works fine over HDMI, didn't test DisplayPort (but it should work). Why doesn't your laptop's DVI port work? DVI should be one of the easiest things to do for any driver.

[bduza]

no hardware accelerated video yet on fglrx. It's being worked on, but no official ETA or anything.

my projector (720p) works fine over HDMI, didn't test DisplayPort (but it should work). Why doesn't your laptop's DVI port work? DVI should be one of the easiest things to do for any driver.

The HD2300 mobility radeon card is a strange card. It doesn't get covered by the "HD2xxx" range of cards - there isn't even a Windows 7 driver, catalyst or otherwise, for it, let alone one for linux. ATI says I have to get drivers through Acer, and Acer says W7 has the drivers built into it, which it doesn't. At least, nothing decent.

I can make the HD2400 card I have on my old PC work fine with linux, including dual monitors or my projector, but the HD2300 card just never sends a signal.

I was determined to never consider ATI again, but as things seem to be changing with them, I'm rethinking it. So long as I can play video to a plasma or projector from Ubuntu, I'll be happy with it, and anything extra would be a bonus.

[rohcQaH]

weird.
Anyway, a 5xxx will work just as well with secondary displays as your HD2300. Video decoding will work just as well, too, since it's currently done by your CPU anyway