AMD Fusion E-350 Linux Performance

[devius]

Got my E-350 powered notebook this week and it's amazing. With the Catalyst, everything works, from suspend, to setting up external monitors through HDMI etc. although right now, I am running Ubuntu 11.04 with Unity and the opensource stack through xorg-edgers. I. LOVE. MY. NOTEBOOK.

So, which one is it? HP dm1? BTW, what do you have to say about the CPU performance? Have you tried anything a bit more cpu-heavy?

[d2kx]

It's the Lenovo Ideapad S205. I wanted the Lenovo ThinkPad X120e but it's not avaible in Germany, and the S205 is really good aswell.

I think AMD nailed it with the E-350, CPU/GPU performance are just what I need. The only thing that really limits my notebook a bit is the somewhat slow-ish hard drive, but with a SSD, that problem would go away also.

[d2kx]

Nice

Were you able to get video decoding acceleration using XBMC or mplayer? I think that's pretty much the only thing keeping me from a similar laptop.

I am watching Avatar with XBMC using VAAPI over a Samba share from another computer on my Fusion notebook as we speak :-) Works fantastic!

[[Knuckles]]

Ok, great, thanks! Sounds like a very nice laptop

[BlackStar]

I am watching Avatar with XBMC using VAAPI over a Samba share from another computer on my Fusion notebook as we speak :-) Works fantastic!

Which netbook are you using? I'm searching for a E-350 netbook but availability is pretty scarce right now.

[Veerappan]

"Lenovo Ideapad S205"

Scroll up 4 posts for the details.

[BlackStar]

"Lenovo Ideapad S205"

Scroll up 4 posts for the details.

Oops, missed that. Thanks!

[dotnet_nerd]

Newbie here. Sorry for the dumb question, but the technical article was Greek to me. I don't understand that "alphabet soup" of video acceleration terms.

I'm looking to build an HTPC using an ASUS E35M1-M PRO with AMD E-350/Hudson chipset.

I want to install Ubuntu rather than Windows
I want to run XBMC
No gaming - I just want to watch Blu-Ray, 1080P movies and streaming (Netflix et al)

Question(s): will I be able to watch HD 1080P including Blu-Ray under Linux?
Can I use the full acceleration capabilities of this chip? What, if any, drivers would I need to install to make this work?

Would it be better to just bite the bullet and install Win7?

Thanks!

[devius]

Newbie here. Sorry for the dumb question, but the technical article was Greek to me. I don't understand that "alphabet soup" of video acceleration terms.

You'd love the filesystem and compiler articles then

will I be able to watch HD 1080P

Probably. If you're going to buy the motherboard anyway no harm done in testing that and then reporting back how that went

including Blu-Ray under Linux?

Uh oh... Blu-Ray? Probably not. I know it's possible but not as straightforward as inserting disc and pressing play.

Can I use the full acceleration capabilities of this chip?

No. Video acceleration for AMD gpus is pretty dodgy on linux right now. If you want to try that out you should look for XVBA. I personaly never managed to make it work, but I never tried really hard.

What, if any, drivers would I need to install to make this work?

To get the most out of the GPU in the E-350 you'll probably need the FGLRX drivers, commonly known as Catalyst Drivers. Those are available on AMD's site.

Would it be better to just bite the bullet and install Win7?

For Blu-Ray/Streaming Flash 1080p probably. For everything else you should be fine with Ubuntu.

Thanks!

You're welcome.

[mirv]

Newbie here. Sorry for the dumb question, but the technical article was Greek to me. I don't understand that "alphabet soup" of video acceleration terms.

I'm looking to build an HTPC using an ASUS E35M1-M PRO with AMD E-350/Hudson chipset.

I want to install Ubuntu rather than Windows
I want to run XBMC
No gaming - I just want to watch Blu-Ray, 1080P movies and streaming (Netflix et al)

Question(s): will I be able to watch HD 1080P including Blu-Ray under Linux?
Can I use the full acceleration capabilities of this chip? What, if any, drivers would I need to install to make this work?

Would it be better to just bite the bullet and install Win7?

Thanks!

If you have the motivation, look into distros other than Ubuntu. I know I probably just said something evil in these forums, but my own experience with Ubuntu on a HTPC wasn't good - you might find Arch or Gentoo (and the "fun" on playing with it) easier to fine tune to a HTPC system.
Of course, I haven't had an AMD Fusion system to try this out on, so your mileage may vary.