Mobility Radeon HD 2600 update?

[Panix]

I am wondering how well ATI/AMD drivers work with Mobility Radeon HD 2600 video chips (on *laptops*).

I did search the forum but I am not sure if everything works. It sounds like tweaking is still needed to get 3D acceleration or? Could anyone who knows, confirm for me and give me the scoop on this ATI chipset?

I am looking at the Toshiba A200-series of laptops that have the Mobility Radeon HD 2600 chipset although some laptops have the 2400 so is it the same situation with those as well?

I am comparing with a T43 Thinkpad which uses the GMA 900 Intel chipset. I won't be gaming with either laptop but I wanted something decent for wireless and performance. I am concerned about the Thinkpad's wireless abilities although perhaps, it isn't a problem if I upgrade the wireless hardware?

As for the Toshiba, it is expensive and the main reason to hold me back. I have store credit at a big box store that sells these Satellite A200 laptops but I'm not sure it's worth it to spend that kind of money. Still, it would be good to know how Linux is with Mobility Radeon HD 2600 at this point in time.

I also want to be able to play movies and the glossy screen of the Toshiba might be better than the Thinkpad's standard screen? Also, please advise me if I can connect a 22-inch LCD monitor to either of the laptops for a better screen?

I am hoping that ATI has better support for Linux since that is what I plan to use with the laptop with a Windows OS as the backup since I often have problems with wireless in Linux.

[Kano]

Intel onboard works in most cases good enough for video and some desktop effects like compiz. fglrx can be problematic because of incomplete xv support (also some stability issues) and the current oss drivers are developing good but still lack 3d and xv support. Software scaling is usally not that ideal, filtering/upscaling takes much cpu power. So choose wisely and don't blame others later.

[curaga]

Also if you take the Thinkpad, remember you often can't change the mini-pci card because of a BIOS limitation.

As long as the laptop has vga/dvi, you can connect any screen you like.

[Panix]

So, if I bought the laptop with the Radeon HD 2600 chip, I can expect to have problems with the fglrx driver?

There's a laptop that costs more but has the Nvidia 8400GS video chip. But, I thought the HD 2600 was a better chip. Anyone know?

I was hoping that ATI would have had at least the 2400/2600 series supported by now. I am leaning towards the Thinkpad so far because of the cheaper price but it's not as powerful a machine and I am concerned about the wireless. Will the wireless reception be adequate? The newer laptops probably have a better WiFi signal strength, right? The main concerns for me is wireless and ability to install/support on Linux. But, wireless is probably number one but I'd probably leave a copy of Windoze on it to be safe in case I need wireless.

However, in saying that, I would try to get things to work but I don't want a 100 issues at once so if wireless, video and other problems accumulate, that is what I want to avoid. Thus, the reason for the Radeon 2600 question. ;-)

[curaga]

The signal strength depends only the antenna, not on how new the laptop is. Sometimes an older one can have nearly double the signal.

For the wireless, can you find out the chipset? Intel, Atheros, and Ralink are well supported.


For the Thinkpad T43: http://thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:T43 says it only comes with Intel or Atheros wireless, both working great in linux.

[Panix]

For the Thinkpad T43: http://thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:T43 says it only comes with Intel or Atheros wireless, both working great in linux.

That's good to know.

Is there any reason to hold out for the better screen/video which have ATI video chips? Or would that be an issue to install?

It sounds like wireless shouldn't be an issue at least regarding drivers and 'out-of-the-box' support which I like.

[curaga]

Well, I don't see any reason to wait, I myself have many Intel integrated graphic chips and have been happy. I'm not a gamer, but the performance is good, and video playing is OK too.