which is the best driver for Ati Radeon HD 3650 512MB?

[zika]

Ubuntu Intrepid, Phenom X3, ATI Radeon HD 3650 512MB.
I'm currently using ATI driver version 8.561 with Catalyst 8.12.
I keep reading about open-source drivers but I am unsure if they would support this card based on R600 (as far as I know).
on http://ppa.launchpad.net/tormodvolde...org-video-ati/ I see open-source drivers with versions higher that those I got when upgraded to Intrepid, (RC + all updates) but I do not even know which of these drivers to try. I surely do not want to end up with blank screen ... should I revert to open-source drivers or should I stay with this "restricted" ... what do You suggest? it works OK with these drivers, not with great speed in compiz but metacity is quicker than me ...
just a thought.

[TVMA]

I'm in a similar boat. I have the HD4850 and have had the same delimma. One thing too is, is that I often times have to tweak settings to keep my screen from flickering when using the ATI restricted drivers. I can go set "Vblank" in compiz general settings, and I have also set (no Xv) for X settings. This solves the ficker problem only for totem, still have issues with VLC and such.

From what I understand, people using Nvidia restricted drivers don't really have any of the issues ATI users have?

I'm curious to know if using the open source drivers would help eliminate these problems. Also, gaming sucks using ATI drivers as well, especially if you are using Wine / Crossover Gaming.. ugh..

Any input regarding the open source drivers would be great. I fear they don't offer 3D support though?

Thanks,..

[Melcar]

There is "blinking" all across the board (when using desktop composition). All open source drivers suffer from it and fglrx suffers from it. It has more to do with the way X is set up. Nvidia drivers bypass X, so they are not susceptible to these problems.
The ATI open source drivers are great for 2D accel and basic 3D accel on most cards (2D/3D on 5rxx and before cards, 2D only on newer cards). They are only opengl1.3 and half as fast as fglrx (on a good day), so if you are seeking pure 3D performance these are not for you. They are good for watching Xv accelerated videos, running composite managers like Compiz, and running most Linux games (forget about Wine since that needs full opengl2.1 compliance), as well as being overall more stable.

[HavocXphere]

afaik the Open-source ones will soon support 3d on the new cards. ATI released some or other docu pack that is supposed to help with that.

Can't wait for the dri2 thing...supposedly its going to fix the flicker bug.

[zika]

There is "blinking" all across the board (when using desktop composition). All open source drivers suffer from it and fglrx suffers from it. It has more to do with the way X is set up. Nvidia drivers bypass X, so they are not susceptible to these problems.
The ATI open source drivers are great for 2D accel and basic 3D accel on most cards (2D/3D on 5rxx and before cards, 2D only on newer cards). They are only opengl1.3 and half as fast as fglrx (on a good day), so if you are seeking pure 3D performance these are not for you. They are good for watching Xv accelerated videos, running composite managers like Compiz, and running most Linux games (forget about Wine since that needs full opengl2.1 compliance), as well as being overall more stable.

great! I do not play 3D games, I need them for just the stuff You mentioned. what do You suggest for my card? (HD 3650) to uninstall ATI driver and use what? should I just un-check restricted driver in System->Administration->Hardware or should I uninstall ATI driver by

sudo sh ./fglrx-uninstall.sh

since I've installed it that way? what am I going to be left with once I've uninstalled it? what about new versions of open-source drivers on "teormodvolden"'s site ... ?

or should I just be at peace with what I have right now and wait for JJ?

[Melcar]

The HD3650 is a r6xx based chip, which doesn't really have a 2D engine. Most acceleration is done with the 3D engine (even video playback), so the driver would be of no help to you at this moment, unless you plan on using X11 output on your video players. Further, you won't be able to use Compiz or any of that stuff. Fglrx is still the best drive for that card for now. If you still wan to use it, Ubuntu already has both radeon and radeonhd installed by default, so all you would need to do after uninstalling fglrx is rebuild X and edit xorg.conf to use the driver:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver xorg
sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

# add the "Driver" line to your "Device" section

Section "Device"
        Identifier      "Configured Video Device"
        Driver          "radeonhd"
EndSection

http://www.x.org/wiki/radeonhd


For fglrx uninstallation, use the uninstall script only if you installed the driver with ATI's install script (the one you get from their site). If you used Ubuntu to install the drivers, just uncheck the box in the hardware drivers menu.

[zika]

thank You very much. I'll just leave everything as it is. to be honest I have everything working reasonably well but every now and then I get the urge to "fix" things, to be honest. thank You once more.

[Blue Beard]

I have used both the radeon and radeonhd drivers in jaunty alpha 3 on a HD3450. IMO, they are both as good as the flgrx driver.

Configuring two monitors with xrandr simplifies xorg.conf and I have had xrandr --auto work perfectly once. There are still bugs with recognizing the card on a fresh install.

Status of the features in the drivers is available at http://www.x.org/wiki/RadeonFeature

The future looks good for the open source drivers.

[TVMA]

So I also have an Nvidia 8600 GT, would I actually get better 3d / gaming performance using that with the restricted drivers than I would using my ATI HD4850 with the ati drivers?

I'm guessing ..probably.. yeah?

[oregonbob]

I'll have to jump on this list too. I have a new HP m9400f with AMD X4 9750 and an ATI Radeon 3650 HD video card. With stock Intrepid config it does OK, bot no compiz features. I installed the latest ATI Radeon HD 3XXX downloaded from ATI 3 days ago. Then I couldn't stand to watch a video, screen flickers white every time mouse is moved or any screen activity.

Also, I just did automatic updates, it installed 80 of them and said I had to reboot. When I reboot the entire screen was garbled and unreadable. I reboot recovery, restored Intrepid driver and I can function now.

I would like to know of a good card that does everything for less thasn, say $250.00. Is there a perfect working card/model? I have always had bad luck with video cards and linux--for the past 10 years.