AMD's New Catalyst Linux Driver Isn't Too Good

[Panix]

I don't need to blame AMD at all. I just don't buy their stuff because their linux driver is iffy while nvidia's has yet to fail me in years. And I'm sad because the first computers I bought myself had AMD CPUs (from an XP 1600+ all the way to an X2 4200+); recommended AMD to friends and familiy as well. After a first Voodoo3 video card, I had a stellar Radeon 8500. Since then, I haven't found anything worthwhile in their portfolio.

And yes, profiles can be used to keep application specific optimizations away from the main code path. Again, I have yet to see a driver from nvidia improving in an area or two and regressing in all others. You just don't do this.

I blame AMD. ATI couldn't invest and now AMD does the same thing.

I recommended AMD/ATI for a htpc graphics card or just a card that allows switching between TV and monitor and it's total crap.

The onboard nvidia on the mobo using Nouveau drivers did a better job (detecting hardware etc.) even though it still wasn't very good.

But, the radeon drivers were pure crap. I'll probably install the Catalyst drivers just so the damn card can be used properly. But, it sounds like it's going to be garbage, too.

Why does anyone hype AMD/ATI when neither their FOSS nor their binary blob driver is any good?

[tomato]

Why does anyone hype AMD/ATI when neither their FOSS nor their binary blob driver is any good?

The Radon FOSS driver is faster than the Intel solution... It's stable and dual head works out of the box.

Sure, you're underutilizing the card, but it's not like you can't use it for light gaming on Linux and if you want to play the AAA titles you run the Gaming^W Windows OS.

[RussianNeuroMancer]

It's just this version... This is because... But it's... Blah blah blah. You have to be blind to not see that AMD's support for linux went from rather bad to miserable with no clear trend of improvement. Hence it's a no brainer - linux users should avoid AMD (and advise others they know to do the same) until AFTER AMD improves support for linux.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...g/+bug/1080337

And how same use cases goin' with FOSS driver?

http://askubuntu.com/questions/17863...raphics-driver

Do you follow latest Phoronix articles about FOSS driver performance?

I recommended AMD/ATI for a htpc graphics card or just a card that allows switching between TV and monitor and it's total crap.
The onboard nvidia on the mobo using Nouveau drivers did a better job (detecting hardware etc.) even though it still wasn't very good.
But, the radeon drivers were pure crap.

You talk about FOSS driver, right? Then where is link to your bugreport on freedesktop?

[Hamish Wilson]

I am utilizing my ATI card to the extent that I want to use it - I play many different games with it, I have a dual Zaphod Head display set up with it, I have a composited desktop running with it, and it has been very stable and fairly easy to use. This is using the Radeon Gallium3D drivers. For my use case it fits me fine. Agreed, for some it may not, but that is a far cry from saying it does not work. Nvidia does not fit my use-case, as I value ease of installation and maintenance, and only a free in kernel driver allows me that. Catalyst fails me on this use case as well, but for the most part it succeeds on my other requirements, and other than finding it to be a pain to install and maintain it does actually fit most of my other needs. When I have used it I have actually had little problem with it. Regardless, I would say I am fairly pleased with my investment in AMD.

[Kano]

Maybe it is fine for you because you want to support your power company. If you want to save power you still have to use binary drivers. Especially when your card is able to run games you pay the price for higher energy consumption. Some laptops get even so hot that using oss radeon drivers is a real pain.

[Rallos Zek]

[I] Hence it's a no brainer - linux users should avoid AMD (and advise others they know to do the same) until AFTER AMD improves support for linux.

And Linux users should avoid Nvidia until they start supporting open source drivers with docs and code releases. Until then I cannot recommend Nvidia as they spit in the face of Linux users whilst taking their money.

[Kano]

And of couse nvidia fully drops support for older hardware as fast as amd does. Well in theory intel would be the best choice, for laptops it might be the least problematic one. Hopefully intel really fixes tearing with snb+ chips soon.

[bug77]

I recommended AMD/ATI for a htpc graphics card or just a card that allows switching between TV and monitor...

Looking at my factory overclocked GTX460 sitting at 50Mhz GPU and 135MHz memory while sitting at the KDE desktop, AMD for HTPC doesn't sound like a good idea either. A shame, really, since if we were using windows, their video decoding and processing would be better than nvidia's.

[[Knuckles]]

And of couse nvidia fully drops support for older hardware as fast as amd does. Well in theory intel would be the best choice, for laptops it might be the least problematic one. Hopefully intel really fixes tearing with snb+ chips soon.

Bulls**t. Remember the super duper latest nvidia 310 driver that ups performance for every game? Check what it supports. Go on, I'll wait.
Geforce 8 you say!? Here I was thinking that the Geforce 8 family came out in 2006, while the Radeon HD 5xxx family came out in 2009.

Maybe it's just that I can't count.

[bug77]

Bulls**t. Remember the super duper latest nvidia 310 driver that ups performance for every game? Check what it supports. Go on, I'll wait.
Geforce 8 you say!? Here I was thinking that the Geforce 8 family came out in 2006, while the Radeon HD 5xxx family came out in 2009.

Maybe it's just that I can't count.

I guess you didn't see the sarcasm font