ATI and Linux compatibility

[Jimbo]

People rightly are basing their purchasing decisions on the successes and failures of others. Of course you want to know what you're getting yourself into before you buy, not after.

This doesn't respond to the fact that a lot of plp are talking about ati without having one, based on criticism posted by other people.

Yes but that's not a 5000 series card. To get power management there you either need to upgrade your kernel (not something everyones comfortable with) or run fglrx (again, not something everyones comfortable with )

[/QUOTE]


Have you tried to install 10.4 on evergreen card? have you see if it does power management or not? My guess is that is working pretty fine (but i am only guessing based on that v8800 card is working on michael windows vs ubuntu test)

[Jimbo]

Heiko has posted too in this thread that his 5770 is working fine with fglrx drivers. I am pretty sure that evergreen is working very well, with 3d and powersave.

The fact that opensource doesnt have powersave is already posted in 3rd post, we all agree on that no need to repeat.

[mugginz]

This doesn't respond to the fact that a lot of plp are talking about ati without having one, based on criticism posted by other people.

Yes, they're making a judgement call on whether or not what they're reading about other peoples experiences are relevant to them or not. Do you seriously expect people to buy hardware in the face of other people reporting that it's quite common to have problems with its drivers? It's not like it's unusual to have issues with Evergreen cards on Linux.

Have you tried to install 10.4 on evergreen card? have you see if it does power management or not? My guess is that is working pretty fine (but i am only guessing based on that v8800 card is working on michael windows vs ubuntu test)

10.4 reportedly does power management on Evergreen cards.

[mugginz]

Heiko has posted too in this thread that his 5770 is working fine with fglrx drivers. I am pretty sure that evergreen is working very well, with 3d and powersave.

And others have posted that they're also having success with 5770's and 10.4. Then, and it's very important to keep this in mind, then they say things like yeh, it fine except for this and that. And to get this to work, you have to use that work around, install this kernel or that patch.

The fact that opensource doesnt have powersave is already posted in 3rd post, we all agree on that no need to repeat.

Someone had posted that the FOSS driver doesn't do power management for Evergreen unless you're using an extremely recent kernel. .33 or .34 kernel I think. The important thing to note is that if you need power management of Evergreen cards via a FOSS driver you need to be picky about you're distro/software stack.

[Jimbo]

Yes, they're making a judgement call on whether or not what they're reading about other peoples experiences are relevant to them or not. Do you seriously expect people to buy hardware in the face of other people reporting that it's quite common to have problems with its drivers? It's not like it's unusual to have issues with Evergreen cards on Linux.

Internet can inform you or miss inform you, some users (inexperienced or maybe unlucky with distro confs) may have problem with his evergreen performance
and write a post with his frustrations / problems, other nvidia user come to "the fiesta" some inexperienced users read and decide that ati doesnt work. The plague is formed!! for example read HD4850+lucid+fglrx = horrible performance (what a title!! ati doesn't work ).

10.4 reportedly does power management on Evergreen cards.

ok, tell panix, i was already convinced.

[Jimbo]

BTW, how is workinhg nvidia opensource power management, is in good shape?

[mugginz]

Internet can inform you or miss inform you, some users (inexperienced or maybe unlucky with distro confs) may have problem with his evergreen performance
and write a post with his frustrations / problems,

While a non-critical reading of any topic from the internet can produce misguided observations, that doesn't mean a careful weighing of that facts as reported by many wont produce a decent understanding of the general landscape of issues.

other nvidia user come to "the fiesta" some inexperienced users read and decide that ati doesnt work. The plague is formed!! for example read HD4850+lucid+fglrx = horrible performance (what a title!! ati doesn't work ).

You're assuming that the problems people are reporting about Evergreen under Linux are unfounded. A wide reading of the subject seems to suggest that it's far from uncommon to have issues with fglrx and Evergreen.

ok, tell panix, i was already convinced.

I think Panix has a range of concerns re: Evergreen and Linux with power management being just one of them.

[mugginz]

BTW, how is workinhg nvidia opensource power management, is in good shape?

If anyone wants to use an nVidia card with open-source drivers they're in for some disappointment. The strawman of opensource vs closed source drivers is often brought up by those ATI fanbois though when they realise the state of fglrx vs nVidia blob.

[pingufunkybeat]

The strawman of opensource vs closed source drivers is often brought up by those ATI fanbois

Why is that a strawman? ATi's FOSS drivers are miles ahead of nVidia's ATM, and this is closely related to the fact that ATi is not boycotting the effort, but investing money in helping it.

Are you people so anti open-source that you don't see how ANYONE would value open drivers for the fact that they are open?

nVidia blob is better than fglrx. Few will disagree with this.

But for those of us who really care about open source software, this is a totally irrelevant piece of information. If you don't want a blob, ATi or Intel are what you want, not nVidia.

[mugginz]

Why is that a strawman? ATi's FOSS drivers are miles ahead of nVidia's ATM, and this is closely related to the fact that ATi is not boycotting the effort, but investing money in helping it.

Well that's a very good question. Lets look at why someone would want to use a closed source driver. Most of the issues that come to my mind relate to issues of performance relating to rendering speed but there are also those that relate to enabling the complete feature set of a particular piece of hardware. Not all open source drivers enable all the functionality of its target hardware. It's much more common to see complete hardware enablement from closed source drivers rather than open source ones.

Are you people so anti open-source that you don't see how ANYONE would value open drivers for the fact that they are open?

What has making your hardware work as intended got to do with open vs closed source software development methodologies.

nVidia blob is better than fglrx. Few will disagree with this.

Excactly. And where the best and complete functionality of hardware is required this is where people should look.

But for those of us who really care about open source software, this is a totally irrelevant piece of information.

How so? You can really care about open source software and also use closed source drivers.

If you don't want a blob, ATi or Intel are what you want, not nVidia.

Exactly. If you put the development methodology of your driver above the functionality you need then clearly you shouldn't buy an nVidia card.