A Major Open-Source ATI Linux Driver Update

[phoronix]

Phoronix: A Major Open-Source ATI Linux Driver Update

If you use the open-source ATI Linux graphics driver, there's a major stable update available. At long last, xf86-video-ati 6.14.0 has been released. This open-source X.Org driver brings official support for the Radeon HD 5000 series, Radeon HD 6000 series, and AMD Fusion Ontario hardware. This release also has a plethora of bug-fixes and flips on the KMS page-flipping support...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=OTA3Nw

[allquixotic]

For those interested: Using this version of xf86-video-ati with r600g on Evergreen = Second Life and Savage 2 mostly work. SL crashes with shaders enabled, but they are optional, and not a big part of the experience. Performance is great. Savage 2 performance is also good, but character models are pretty hilariously screwed up. Everything else about the environment is ok. To get the most out of this you need the latest 2.6.38 prerelease and mesa from git master.

[Bitiquinho]

This will be shipped with kernel 2.6.38 stable release ?

Ps.: Sorry for noob question

[monraaf]

Best about KMS page-flipping is that it dramatically speeds up the performance in OpenGL applications and games.

If you are going to make bold claims like that, you are going to have to back them up with evidence (i.e. benchmarks). With my own testing I could not find that page-flipping made a difference in fps.

[deanjo]

If you are going to make bold claims like that, you are going to have to back them up with evidence (i.e. benchmarks). With my own testing I could not find that page-flipping made a difference in fps.

IIRC it makes quite the difference on Drift.

[monraaf]

IIRC it makes quite the difference on Drift.

What you mean by Drift, Vdrift? I didn't test that, I only ran openarena and doom3 benchmarks and page-flipping brings no difference there.

page-flip          off            on                            
--------------------------------------------
openarena       135.3 fps     135.7 fps
doom3            40.5 fps      39.9 fps

[RealNC]

This will be shipped with kernel 2.6.38 stable release ?

This is the X.Org driver, not the kernel DRM driver.

[DeepDayze]

Will this driver be more usable on an R100 chip as that's what my Thinkpad T42 has. Any improvement in usability even on that chip's welcomed

[blacknova]

I kind of interested if any work is ongoing to support 3d-stereo output devices. It seems like we will see a lot of auto-stereo monitors and TVs anounced this year. But support for already present TV/monitors with shatter-glasses would be good as well

[Welsh Dwarf]

OK, this isn't a troll but a genuine question.

I'm in the market for a new laptop (4Go ram + Intel core i5 probably) and I'm wondering what to do about graphics.

I used to be hard core NVidia due to the blob being generally considered more stable by the Internet (please feel free to prove me wrong though).

Recently though, 3 things have made me hesitate:
1) KMS and such goodies not being available in the blob
2) r600g looking a lot more mature than nouveau (no offense to the nouveau guys, you're doing a great job considering)
3) NVidia Optimus

I know that hybrid graphics are coming to the ati side of things as well, but they generally seem better supported than optimus (where you just get all the power drain of the NVidia GPU with all the performance of the intel GPU built into the chipset).

I'd be manly coding but I do like to game from time to time (the most demanding games being SC2/WoW under wine).

Does any one have any experience with this / any tips on choosing my setup.

TIA

David