AMD Catalyst 12.6 For Linux Disappoints

[Marix]

I wonder whether they improved the OpenCL compiler for the 7970. To sad I removed it from my system yesterday and will have to wait till Monday with testing.

[Kano]

That driver is a good example of a very bad fglrx driver. Compared to 12-6 beta there was 0 difference:

a) same pci ids
b) no kernel 3.4+ support
c) crashes with debian xserver 1.12

So what on earth was fixed? Definitely nothing that i test...

[Soul_keeper]

I just wanted to confirm there is _no_ 3.4.x support
I had to patch two files to make it work.

[bwat47]

[QUOTE=Altix;271994
BTW, ATi have had crap drivers under WinNT kernels for years too, what their excuse there too? (rhetorical, I don't actually care - I just want a product that works for ~1.5 year before it goes in the bin and I get the next shinny one, particularly GPU's)[/QUOTE]

I've never had problems with ati drivers under windows, I've got a 6950 working great on my gaming desktop. I remember when I ran vista I switched to an ati x1950 because nvidia's drivers were giving me so much problems.

On the linux sides I've definitely had bugginess with catalyst. The OSS drivers were quite stable for me, but performance isn't quite there yet (but its decent for basic usage/compositing) and power management is a joke, which is the main issue with them right now IMO. If the OSS ati drivers had decent power management, I would have gladly kept using linux with ati, but I was forced to get a new laptop with intel graphics to get halfway decent battery life and temps. I will be sticking with intel for the foreseeable future, they seem to be the only ones that PROPERLY support linux with good official oss drivers (atom excluded).

[xgt001]

That driver is a good example of a very bad fglrx driver. Compared to 12-6 beta there was 0 difference:

a) same pci ids
b) no kernel 3.4+ support
c) crashes with debian xserver 1.12

So what on earth was fixed? Definitely nothing that i test...

on the arch linux side I am running Kernel 3.4.3 kernel with xserver 1.12 with zero issues

[TAXI]

when? I'm using ATI/AMD cards and drivers since 2003 and their stuff always worked (aside from that one card that decided it would be a wise decision to stop spinning the fan)

I've never had problems with ati drivers under windows, I've got a 6950 working great on my gaming desktop. I remember when I ran vista I switched to an ati x1950 because nvidia's drivers were giving me so much problems.

WinNT is way older. Here's a german post from 1999 showing issues with ATi GPUs + realtek network chips: http://forum.chip.de/windows-alte-ve...html#post22341
let me try to translate it for you:

Michael Beylich wrote:
> I can't install the ATI Rage 128 at my NT-Machine. Are there some tricks? I can try what I want, the machine won't go above 60 Hz at 800x600.

Hi !
Do you have a network card installed -- maybe with a realtek chip?
There are many problems...
If you got such a card write to me:

[email removed]

I think you'll find more issues if you search in the real NT days, so before Windows 2000.

But @Altix ATi != AMD. All in all it seems like the driver(s) improved since AMD bought ATi.

[Kano]

@xgt001

i dont use arch.

[devguy]

on the arch linux side I am running Kernel 3.4.3 kernel with xserver 1.12 with zero issues

I was unable to get the Catalyst 12.6 beta work with neither kernel 3.4.x nor XServer 1.12 on Ubuntu 12.04. Worked acceptably with 3.3.x and 1.11, though.

[jvillain]

TobiSGD what kernel are you running?

[TobiSGD]

TobiSGD what kernel are you running?

Currently I am back to Slackware 13.37 with the 2.6.37.6 kernel, I had the same problems with 2.6.32 from Debian and the Slackware kernels 2.6.38, 3.2.7 and 3.2.13.