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kshane
May 6th, 2009, 05:40 PM
Can ANY ONE tell me: Do the open source video/3d drivers work now? Tried them in the past when I couldn't get my ATI Radeon X-1650 Pro to work (back around Ubuntu version 7.04) and they were TERRIBLE!

I don't want to be left behind because of my video card. Can't afford a new one. I love playing First-Person-Shooters in linux, but I haven't been able to determine if the open source drivers have improved. Don't want to "experiment" with my whole system.

Open Source Drivers - do they work now?

Kevin

cariboo
May 6th, 2009, 09:15 PM
I would suggest tryng the LiveCD to make sure everything works before trying an installation.

Mark Phelps
May 7th, 2009, 02:42 PM
Can ANY ONE tell me: Do the open source video/3d drivers work now? Tried them in the past when I couldn't get my ATI Radeon X-1650 Pro to work (back around Ubuntu version 7.04) and they were TERRIBLE!
...
Open Source Drivers - do they work now?

I, too, have been using restricted drivers since 7.04 because, like you, I found the open source drivers to be awful. But now, I'm using open source drivers because, again like you, my vid card is no longer supported.

I can't say about 3D acceleration because I don't really use that anymore, but at least with 2D work (videos, YouTube), the open source drivers now are working fine. No tearing, no flicker.

kshane
May 7th, 2009, 05:44 PM
I would suggest tryng the LiveCD to make sure everything works before trying an installation.

Took your advice and made a LiveCD. After getting to the desktop, I the easiest way to check the 3d was to look at the screen savers. As soon as I clicked on the first one (3d ants), my system froze completely. No keyboard commands, nothing. Mouse still moved, but no clicks worked. Had to do a hard reboot.

So, I guess, I cannot upgrade to 9.04. Kinda bummed. Time to build a new non-ATI computer system.

Unless any one else has a suggestion or two? :grin:

sandy8925
May 7th, 2009, 05:49 PM
Intel graphics cards don't seem to have problems but then they suck compared to Nvidia and ATI. If you are building a new system you can probably get a newer ATI card which will be supported by the restricted drivers. Live CD's are pretty slow compared to running from the ahrd disk. So it might not really be all that bad.